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

AFPP Application

The Air Force community, although different from civilian communities, also has many similarities. All communities have identified leaders who can influence and shape community norms and policies. Community leaders help to establish what the priorities of a community are and/or should be. Like all communities, there are the official leaders and then there are the many people who fill community needs and roles and who take on leadership responsibilities unofficially. Both types of leaders can work together to form and establish priorities, such as suicide prevention and suicide as a public health problem.

Human service organizations occupy a multi-faceted position in both the Air Force and civilian communities, which are often not well connected and organized in both systems. Thus, efforts to organize knowledge of what services exist and how to access and utilize them is knowledge that can be transferred from one domain to another.

All communities contain aspects of a common identity. At the same time all communities are comprised of diverse individuals. This is as true of the Air Force as it is of civilian communities.

All communities also have gatekeepers, who are the people who assist in opening doors to help, whether help is in the form of other people, money, programs, and/or organizations. The Air Force established a network of gatekeepers and worked to get those gatekeepers to recognize themselves as such and take on appropriate roles and responsibilities.

In all kinds of communities, the leaders are able to:

• Shape and direct cultural norms
• Contact and train established gatekeepers and service providers
• Improve coordination of diverse and duplicative services
• Provide educational programs to community members

A copy of The Air Force Suicide Prevention Program [Adobe PDF] is available.