CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. The Nature and Scope of Suicide
2. Recognizing the Progressive Development of Suicide
3. Substance Abuse as a Major Contributor to Suicide
4. Suicide Across the Life Span
5. Special Populations and Suicide Risk
6. Prevention and Early Intervention for Suicide and Substance Abuse Problems

Supplements
References
Resources

Holding the Lifeline
A Guide to Suicide Prevention

Prevention Goals

The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention describes goals and priorities for suicide prevention on an individual, community, and/or national level. The goals and priorities stated below complement the protective factors and help one to see how protective factors can be operationalized.

The National Strategy supports these methods for preventing suicide:

• Promote awareness of suicide as a public health problem, not merely an individual/family problem.
• Gather broad-based support for suicide prevention.
• Identify patterns of suicide and suicidal behavior throughout a group or population.
• Develop and implement community-based suicide prevention programs.
• Train professionals and others to recognize at-risk behavior and have adequate treatment available.
• Establish effective clinical and professional practices for prevention, early intervention, and treatment of suicide.
• Promote and support research on suicide and suicide prevention.
• Improve and expand data collection and statistical systems (collect information on completed suicides, precipitating events, adequacy of social support and health services, data on cost of injuries related to suicidal behavior, and loss of productivity and earnings).
• Build strong connections to family, community, and other forms of social support.
• Provide effective clinical care for mental, physical, and substance abuse disorders.
• Supply access to healthcare and social services.
• Teach gatekeepers to recognize warning signs (see box for definition of gatekeepers).
• Restrict access to lethal means.
• Train in problem solving, conflict resolution, and nonviolent handling of disputes.
• Encourage responsible media reporting to decrease sensationalism, imitation, and suicide contagion.
• Identify families with one or more members who have completed suicide.
• Decrease the stigma of mental health and/or substance abuse disorders, particularly among men (women seek help more than men).