Who are Suicide Prevention Practitioners?
The damage that suicide causes is significant. Last year in the US over 34,000 people died by suicide and over a million adults made suicide attempts. Yet, as for so many public health problems, suicide is often preventable.
Suicide prevention practitioners are individuals interested in preventing suicide — professionals and others — and include clergy members, therapists, direct service workers, teachers, doctors, healers, and many others.
The work they do to save lives encompasses a diverse range of interventions such as effective treatment and care for people who have a mental illness or are in crisis, emergency services for acutely suicidal individuals, training in life skills for young people, reduction in access to lethal means, and changing cultural attitudes about seeking help.
Whatever role you play in suicide prevention, the following resource page has been created to assist you in your efforts to improve the quality of life for suicidal individuals and their families.
About Suicide
American Association of Suicidology Fact Sheets. Based on the most recent national statistics (available in English and Spanish), the fact sheets provide data for various demographic groups including youth as well as information about risk factors for suicide.
• http://www.suicidology.org/web/guest/stats-and-tools/fact-sheets
CDC WISQARS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides an interactive database system called WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) from which users can generate reports of suicide and other injuries. Reports can be customized by gender, age, race, and year for individual states or the nation.
• Leading Causes of Death Reports rank deaths by cause and show numbers of deaths.
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html
• Fatal Injury Data include number of deaths and rates for suicide and other causes of death.
http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal.html
• National Violent Death Reporting System includes violent incidents and deaths, death rates, and causes of injury mortality from 16 states.
http://wisqars.cdc.gov:8080/nvdrs/nvdrsDisplay.jsp
CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) administers the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a national school-based survey conducted by state, territorial, and local education and health agencies and tribal governments.
• http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm
CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984.
• http://www.cdc.gov/BRFSS/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The 2008 data include suicidal thoughts and behaviors by adults.
• http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/165/suicide.cfm
World Health Organization (WHO) provides data on individual countries as well as a global perspective on suicide.
• http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/index.html
BioMedSearch is an enhanced version of the NIH PubMed search that combines MedLine/PubMed data with data from other sources for comprehensive biomedical literature searches. Registering for BioMedSearch is free.
• http://www.biomedsearch.com/
Prevention Resources for Suicide Prevention Practitioners
American Association of Suicidology Warning Signs of Suicide. IS PATH WARM is a mnemonic for recalling the warning signs of suicide that received designation as a best practice.
• http://www.suicidology.org/web/guest/stats-and-tools/warning-signs
American Psychiatric Association provides a practical guideline and other clinical resources for medical professionals working with patients exhibiting suicidal behaviors.
• http://www.psychiatryonline.com/pracGuide/pracGuideTopic_14.aspx
American Psychological Association provides resources on suicide prevention for professionals in the psychology community.
• http://www.apa.org/topics/suicide/index.aspx
Best Practices Registry (SPRC/AFSP) identifies, reviews, and disseminates information about best practices that address specific objectives of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.
• http://www2.sprc.org/bpr/index
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) provides information on suicide prevention and intervention specifically for educators, school administrators, and parents.
• http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/suicideresources.aspx
National Strategy for Suicide Prevention presents a national strategic prevention framework to guide the development of programs to reduce deaths due to suicide. Both the digital report and the printed report are available from the link below.
• http://store.samhsa.gov/product/SMA01-3517
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides a free, 24-hour hotline at
1-800-273-TALK (8255) available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. In addition, the Lifeline web site offers prevention resources.
• http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offers current resources and information related to suicide prevention and mental health.
• http://www.samhsa.gov/prevention/suicide.aspx
Resources for Suicide Prevention Coalitions
Assessment and Planning Tool Kit for Suicide Prevention in First Nations Communities provides a framework to help individuals and groups interested in addressing the issue of suicide in their communities.
• http://www.naho.ca/firstnations/publications/suicide-prevention/
CDC Youth Suicide Prevention Programs: A Resource Guide has been available for several years, but the information it provides is still relevant. Topics include school gatekeeper training, community gatekeeper training, screening programs, peer support programs, and means restriction.
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/youthsui.htm
Community Toolbox describes skills for building healthy communities with more than 7,000 pages of practical guidance.
• http://ctb.ku.edu/en/default.aspx
RAND Getting to Outcomes is a free publication that describes a 10-step method and provides tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating prevention programs.
• http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR101.html
Spectrum of Prevention developed by the Prevention Institute promotes a range of activities for effective prevention which include influencing policy and changing organizational practices to educating providers.
• http://www.preventioninstitute.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&view=article&id=105&Itemid=127
Suicide Prevention Resource Center provides a starting point for learning more about suicide prevention efforts and resources in your state.
• http://www.sprc.org/stateinformation/index.asp
Please feel free to email us recommendations for additional resources as we will continue to update the page.
Prevention Division Director: Scott Poland, Ed.D., e- mail: spoland@nova.edu
