Feature Articles

Indian Country in Crisis

New Teen Center Offers Hope

Many have heard of the heart wrenching details of the shooting at Red Lake High School in March of 2005. Sixteen year old student, Jeff Weise, shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s companion, and five students before taking his own life.

Many may not have heard of the phenomenon of the suicide pact in Indian country. The executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project, Julie Garreau, spoke about these young men who vow to take their lives together in her testimony submitted to the United States Senate Indian Affairs Committee. She explained that they “drew numbers, and decided to hang themselves in that order. One by one their families found these boys, often hanging in their homes, as their “number” came up.”

An even more daunting fact may be that in the Cheyenne River area in Eagle Butte, SD alone there are three to seven suicide attempts every week. In 2002-2003 Cheyenne River law enforcement reported 3 suicide completions, 152 suicide attempts, and 72 suicide threats within a population of roughly 10,000 people.

But is Indian country’s number up? Many people are hopeful and working towards helping the Native American youth.

On October 11, 2005 U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) announced that the Cheyenne River Youth Project will receive two grants with a combined value of $368,280 secured through last year’s VA-HUD- Independent Agencies Appropriations Act. The money will go towards building a new teen center.

"By building a new teen center we are giving young people a safe and healthy place to interact with their peers," Johnson said. "The Cheyenne River Youth Project has been working hard for over a decade to improve the lives of youth, and I'm pleased to support their great work."

The Cheyenne River Youth Project began in January of 1988 in order to improve the quality of life for Cheyenne River children by offering a safe, alcohol and drug free environment. This non-profit organization offers fun and education programs for children and teens like midnight basketball and fashion sleepovers for women ages 15 and over.

The Project also hopes to reinstitute a suicide prevention hotline. The Project hosted a hotline for seven years until 2000, when volunteers and funding dissolved.

Garreau stated that “a teen center is not the only answer, nor is it the solution for every community. There are so many other needs, drug and alcohol counseling, better foster care and juvenile justice systems, and more mental health counselors. Nevertheless, our teenagers are excited about this new center; we have seen it in their faces, and heard it in their voices. Even before it is built, it is giving them what they really need most: hope.”

To read more about Julie Garreau’s testimony visit:

http://indian.senate.gov/2005hrgs/061505hrg/garreau.pdf

If you’d like to find out how to volunteer for the Cheyenne River Youth Project:

http://www.indianyouth.org/volunteerform.pdf

To read the press release on the teen center funding visit:

http://johnson.senate.gov/~johnson/releases/200510/2005A11B46.html

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Myths and Truths about Holiday Suicide and Depression

Turn on the TV this time of year and you’re bound to come across the Frank Capra classic, It’s A WonderfulLife. As he has for decades, local hero George Bailey will be standing alone and desperate on Christmas Eve night at the side of a lonely bridge, peering into a half-frozen river. Snow will be whirling around him and then he will jump.

The scene, etched into our collective national memory, in many ways perpetuates one of the greatest of all holiday myths—that suicide rates increase during the holiday season.

Research indicates quite the opposite is true. Through 1996, the most recent year for which data is available from the National Center for Health Statistics, November and December were the months with the lowest daily rates of suicide. The highest were in spring.

You would not be likely to learn this, however, from your daily newspaper. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, newspaper coverage of suicides from Nov. 8, 1999 through Jan. 15, 2000 indicated that two out of every three articles written— 66 percent—incorrectly linked suicides to the holiday season. The research is the first to be released from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to the Annenberg Public Policy Center to examine the connection between the media and suicide. The analysis was co-released with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

“Journalists should not perpetuate the myth that suicide increases during the winter holidays,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication. “Although the print stories in our study link such holidays as Christmas with suicides, reporters who contact research experts in the field will find that this is just not true.”

Of the 67 print stories studied, more than half (55 percent) that linked suicides to the holidays attributed the association to the “holiday blues.” One out of five stories (21 percent) linked suicides to “disappointment at holiday time.” Only one in four (25 percent) identified depression or other chronic mental health conditions as the most common underlying cause of suicide. While most stories reinforced the myth that suicides increase during the winter holiday season, only one-third (34 percent) of the stories offered accurate advice for suicide prevention.

“Many stories don’t ever touch on the underlying illnesses that are often behind the suicide,” said Robert Gebbia, executive director of AFSP. “They just touch on the precipitating factor—a relationship, a breakup or a fight with a teacher, for instance. You find out later that there was often a long history of drug and alcohol problems or untreated depression or aggressive behavior.” Ninety percent of all suicides, he said, are the result of an underlying psychiatric illness.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one thing that does increase each year in November and December is the number of people who seek professional help for depression. As for holiday depression, mental health experts aren’t even sure it’s a real phenomenon. Levels of stress, they point out, increase significantly at this time of year. According to NIMH, depression strikes approximately 17 million American adults annually. Dread, anxiety and depression, the hallmarks of the holiday season for many, when coupled with fatigue, unrealistic expectations and unresolved family issues, can lead to problems. They recommend planning carefully beforehand to cut down on stress. To avoid headaches eat properly and get enough sleep. Keep in mind that alcohol is a depressant.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) may also contribute to the condition known as “holiday blues,” especially for those living in more northern parts of the United States. SAD is a type of depression that has to do with sunlight deprivation. In this hemisphere, SAD usually begins in late fall or early winter, when daylight hours decrease. It usually ends in spring when the days grow long again.

The prevalence of SAD is not well known. According to NIMH, some studies report it affects between 2 to 10 percent of the American population. The symptoms of SAD include energy loss, increased anxiety, oversleeping and overeating. The latter may be the result of a change in the balance of brain chemicals associated with decreased sunlight. Although the exact reason for the association between light and mood is unknown, research suggests a connection with the sleep cycle. Happily, there is hope for SAD sufferers. Several studies have suggested that light therapy involving daily exposure to bright fluorescent light may be an effective treatment for the disorder.

Social Phobia and Depression

For some people, the holiday season sparks such intense feelings of anxiety and dread they avoid social gatherings entirely. “A lot of people have anxiety in social situations such as when meeting new people at a holiday party, but the fear is not severe and typically passes,” said Una McCann, M.D. of the Unit on Anxiety Disorders at NIMH. “For people with social phobia, however, the fear of embarrassment

in social situations is excessive, extremely intrusive and can have debilitating effects on personal and professional relationships.”

People with social phobia have an overwhelming and disabling fear of disapproval in social situations. They recognize that their fear may be excessive or unreasonable but are unable to overcome it. Symptoms of social phobia include blushing, sweating, trembling, rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, nausea or other stomach discomfort, light headedness and other anxiety symptoms. Effective treatments include medications, therapy or some combination.

According to NIMH approximately two thirds of those who suffer from depression—which profoundly impairs the ability to function in everyday situations by affecting moods, thoughts, behaviors and physical wellbeing —don’t get the help they need, and 15 percent of chronic depression cases end in suicide. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) estimates that 80 to 90 percent of all cases of depression can be treated effectively, but many people fail to identify their symptoms or attribute them to lack of sleep or poor diet. Others are either too fatigued or ashamed to seek help.

Seasonal affective disorder, social phobia and depression are treatable, and most people suffering from them can be helped. For more information, log onto http://www.nimh.nih.gov/, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (http://www.fda.gov/).

Recovery Inc.

For those who have been battling mental illness and need added support with their struggles in everyday life, Recovery Inc. may be the answer. It is one of the first self-help groups, founded at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of Illinois Research and Education Hospital by the late Abraham A. Low, M.D. As a neuropsychiatrist, Low was tired of seeing the same patients over and over again who seemed to never recover. They would be treated, exit the hospital, then cycle back into treatment.

Low is one of the first to use cognitive behavior tools for recovery. Cognitive behavior seeks to identify and correct thinking patterns that can lead to troublesome feelings and behavior.

The same tools Low used in 1937 are used today in Recovery Inc. Someone may be reluctant to attend a meeting where the text is 68 years old, as was Sarah, a Recovery Inc. member. Walking into that meeting two years ago, she said that she felt uncomfortable and anxious. As members read from the text she thought, how could this possibly relate to me, an independent modern woman? Today she knows that the thearpy of Recovery Inc. is a timeless one because it deals with human behaviors that everyone has.

Sarah attended the first meeting after a coworker invited her. The coworker was a Recovery Inc. group leader who suffered from anxiety and though Sarah could benefit from being a part of the group.

Her coworker could not have been more right. Depression and bipolar disorder run in Sarah’s family, so when she first recognized her symptoms of manic depression and her chemical imbalance in high school, she thought it was normal. After getting married and having her daughter, Sarah experienced postpartum depression. Then she sought help from a psychopharmacologist and therapists, who helped her depression and anxiety.

But Sarah always had suicidal thoughts, but had never acted on them until after experiencing problems in her marriage and losing her job at the same time. Looking back, she says that she didn’t want to die. Just in that one moment she thought, “I wouldn’t have to struggle with everyday existence.”

So one night when she and her husband went to bed, she snuck away into the bathroom. She locked the door and overdosed on her medication. Sometime during the night, her husband realized his wife was behind the locked door and kicked it down and called an ambulance.

After getting her stomach pumped, Sarah spent two weeks in the hospital, then was transferred to another facility. Her insurance wouldn’t pay for further treatment, so she was back into the realm of everyday life.

Sarah returned to Recovery Inc. after her suicide attempt and decided to commit to it. After attending numerous meetings, Sarah now says that Recovery Inc. is something you “have to practice. “If you do it halfheartedly, it won’t work.”

As a person with depression and anxiety going into a meeting, you may feel that everyone is judging you, but everyone in the meeting is in the same position you are, Sarah said. It is not like the atmosphere where a patient rambles to a doctor. Meetings are peer led, and group leaders are members too.

Meetings take place once a week and locations have sprung up all over the world, including Ireland, Wales, Mexico, Puerto Rico, England, Israel and Canada. The meetings are a safe place for people who are helping themselves and are helping one another.

The format is very structured and starts with reading Dr. Low’s book or listening to tapes of his lectures. Then members give examples of their symptoms. At Recovery Inc. the main focus is not on the diagnosis, but on the symptoms members have. The language used to give the examples of symptoms follows a specific format in order to take the emotion out of the example.

In Recovery Inc., words are an important part of the recovery process. Members are encouraged to walk through their past experience, not relive it. Finally members tell the group how they would have reacted in the same situation before they had come to Recovery Inc. After the structured portion of the meeting, members have the opportunity to talk freely about the meeting itself or any other issues they may have.

Through the Recovery program members learn how to change the way that they react to people and situations in which they have no control over in everyday life. Members will learn how to manage their negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which lead to mental and physical stress symptoms.

After two years, Sarah still attends Recovery Inc. meetings. There are times when she forces herself to attend because she just doesn’t feel like it. After sharing with others during the meeting, she has a feeling of relief that makes attending Recovery Inc. worthwhile.

For more information, visit:

www.recovery-inc.org

Or contact their headquarters:

312-337-5661

Crisis Hotlines Proven Effective in Three Year Study

By H. Reese Butler II

The long-awaited Silent Monitoring Study of the National Hopeline Network (NHN) has been released. It is loaded with information and is well worth the wait and the time it takes to glean all of the useful data, which includes 205 pages and an executive summary.

The study is packed with powerful conclusions and recommendations. It confirms that when proper risk assessments and good initial connections are made, positive outcomes can be expected.

The recommendations perfectly align with the features and benefits of the Crisis Response Information and Evaluation System (CRIES), which is the web-based application that the NHN developed to provide crisis centers with the ability to conduct risk assessments and guide the call taker through the call. The ability to capture what is occurring on the more than 400,000 calls that come through the NHN each year is essential if we are to improve our service delivery. The CRIES is just the tool to help us do that.

The obstacles to this evaluation’s success have been many, but we are very glad that we were determined to succeed so that crisis centers could at last point to a clinical evaluation that supports the long-held belief that crisis hotlines can indeed be effective. Finally we have proof that the NHN is largely doing what it is set up to do -- prevent suicide.

The evaluators found that in 85 percent of all the calls that were monitored, good contact was made and the caller was satisfied with what occurred on the call. The need to improve that percentage is evident by the failures of the call takers in at least 15 percent of the calls. In those calls, the call takers did not make good contact, conduct risk assessments, and send rescue when the caller appeared to need it.

In their overall findings, researchers found that callers benefit from the help they receive over the Hopeline Network. They also found that when change occurs from the beginning to the end of a call, it is generally positive. In some instances, lives may have been saved by timely rescues in which ambulances were sent and in skilled interventions where a person intending to commit suicide was convinced to abort an attempt and obtain help.

CRIES is the application that the study’s leader, Brian Mishara and his team used to conduct the silent monitoring study. The application was paid for by a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is available for all crisis centers in the Hopeline Network to use for free.

It is a web-based application that has seven major components which are fully operational and have been since June 2003. The application offers call trace in real time, silent monitoring, remote monitoring, and real-time call routing distribution. In October of 2003, the following features were added: suicide risk assessment, standard gathering tool, and call detail reporting.

In fact, last month NHN celebrated our second anniversary of the launch of the call trace and silent monitoring features used by Mishara and his team.

How CRIES was used in the Silent Monitoring Study

The study’s researchers monitored 2,611 calls to the NHN centers, with 782 crisis intervention workers agreeing to participate. On the research center’s confidential telephone lines, two research assistants listened simultaneously and unobtrusively to calls received on the NHN, one observing and coding helper behavior and the other noting caller characteristics and conducting observations on caller behaviors throughout the call. The final 1,431 calls lasting over three minutes that came from persons in crisis constituted the final sample used in data analyses.

The study is broken into eight chapters: Goals and Approach to the Study; What We Have Learned From Previous Studies; Developing the Models and Measures and Silent Monitoring; Methodology for the Silent Monitoring; Characteristics of Callers and Calls Monitored; Process of Telephone Intervention: What Helpers Do; Call Outcomes, Differences between Centers; and Conclusions and Recommendations.

Its overall finding: the need for better quality control-monitoring. This means having the capabilities to see what crisis centers really do at 2 a.m. when no supervisors are available. In additions, crisis centers should be able to document that each call was handled according to the agencies’ proven best practices, a list of effective procedures. Quality control also includes matters, such as making sure callers are not yelled at, told to take a bath or given other inappropriate advice. Researchers found some instances of this inappropriate advice in the study.

The results of the study called for better helper-call taker selection-using criteria that include empathy, respect, and ability to establish good initial contact. This was demonstrated by the inconsistency from worker to worker and center to center.

The study also identified that there is a need for improved training and use of Suicide Risk Assessment (SRA), a series of questions that are asked of suicidal persons to determine their likelihood of committing suicide. Adequate supervision also is needed to ensure that the risk assessments are conducted and appropriate next steps are taken.

The study focused on three short-term goals: describing the current nature of help provided on the NHN; assess short-term effects of the telephone help; and determine the relationship between the different intervention practices and the outcome of the calls.

Ironically, the study also found that many crisis center directors’ descriptions of what their centers do are not necessarily accurate. This, researchers say, does not imply that call takers are not doing a good job. Instead it shows a need for future studies that analyze the content of training sessions for call takers at different centers in order to determine what helpers are actually taught to do.

Researchers compared two distinct styles: directive and non-directive. The styles are much as the names imply. The directive approach, which tries to get the callers to take action to improve their lives, is related to good outcomes. In the non-directive approach, crisis line worker plays an active role in the exploration process and the search for solutions.

STUDY SUMMARY:

Overall, the study found that callers benefit from the help they receive over the NHN and that lives may have been saved as a result of the work done over the network. Fourteen agencies and 782 crisis line workers agreed to participate in the study and 1,431 calls were the final sample use in analyses. Half of the centers used the directive approach, while the other 50 percent used the non-directive approach. The study used the Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect the callers’ confidentiality through access and use of the system. The CRIES was used to conduct silent unobtrusive monitoring. Real-time call trace was also used to be able to send rescue personnel when callers were incapacitated.

Of the calls received:

52 % involved crisis where suicide was not discussed
36 % were calls from suicidal people
12 % were from third parties concerned about a loved ones ideation of suicide

Quality varies greatly:

223 calls (15.6%) included at least one negative helper behavior
Lack of empathy (6.1%)
Lack of respect (2.2%)
Poor Initial contact (5.1%)
Telling caller to commit suicide (.02%) 4 cases
Not offering any help (6.1%)
Aggressive or rude (5.3%)
End call to take another call (3.2%)
Referring elsewhere without discussing the problem (2.6%)

Nature of calls:

Suicide in progress 33 callers -- (2.3%)
Had plan and intent 182 -- (12.7%)
Expressed intent 288 -- (20.1%)
Suicidal crisis 503 -- (35.1%)
Third-party calls about suicide crisis 178 -- (12.4%)
13 had just slashed wrists
11 had taken an overdose
1 had a firearm attached to a string

Establishing Contact at the beginning of the call:

81% established good contact at the beginning of the call
5% said there was not good contact
17% unable to say if good contact was made

Questions asked of callers:

Only 31 of the 472 callers who were suicidal were asked if they could control their thoughts
64 were asked where they were
182 were asked if they were alone
5 were asked if they had taken any substances

Out of the 33 suicides in progress:

6 were sent rescue services and only 3 remained on the line
10 were not offered any rescue services
9 offers of help were refused
8 ended with the caller changing their mind, with 1 agreeing to accept a follow-up call

Clearly improvements need to be made and better monitoring of what is going on during the calls is paramount. This study is a mandate for changes in the NHN and the first change is to capture what is occurring on all the calls. With as many as 24,000 suicidal or in-crisis callers each month, the NHN has the responsibility to make sure that each caller is given the help they are requesting -- to be connected with competent mental health professionals who can conduct an accurate risk assessment and provide access to quality care in a timely and safe manner.

We invite you to learn more by testing the CRIES site: http://209.8.58.131:7202/hopeline/logon.jsp

Username: worker Password: kbhc

Keeper of 3,000 Secrets

Artist uses his popular web site to reveal passion for suicide prevention

By Margaret Graves and Cynthia Leslie

It flashes on the screen amidst the rocking sounds of mean guitars and intense percussion: a handwritten message accompanied by a simple drawing of an angel slumped over, crying into her hands. It reads: “3 years ago, I tried to kill myself … Now I’m 18 and people say I’m happy … but I still want to die.”

The postcard was one of 60 shown in The All-American Rejects new video, “Dirty Little Secret,” which premiered on MTV on July 11. In the video, people -- intentionally out of focus, and sometimes wearing bags over their heads -- hold postcards. “My family is rich, but I shoplift every day,” “When I eat I feel like a failure,” “I wish I was the other twin,” they read.

And the All-American Rejects play on, singing, “I’ll give you my dirty little secret. Don’t tell anyone…”

But people do tell. They tell their secrets to Frank Warren, who founded the web site, Postsecret.com, as part of an art project. Now the site is much more than art. It is a place where people can lay their burdens down, release secrets that they have carried, or simply reveal something about themselves that they have never told anyone before -- all anonymously.

And while Warren created a medium for the public catharsis, he has had some battles of his own and is using his web site as a way to fuel his drive to make a difference. Warren has made monetary contributions to the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, a national suicide prevention organization that is partnered with the National Mental Health Association. The center’s primary program, the National Hopeline Network, 1-800-SUICIDE, is a 24-hour, national crisis hotline that allows callers across the country to dial into one number and be connected to a crisis center closest to their homes.

Warren is auctioning a 6-foot-by-4-foot minibillboard of the crying angel postcard on ebay and donating the money to KBHC. Warren also gave KBHC the money he was paid for using his site’s postcards for the making of the video.

“I chose the Kristin Brooks Hope Center because some of the most poignant secrets people share with me involve suicide,” Warren said, adding that he has also worked for suicide prevention hotlines in California and Maryland. “And most importantly, in 1998, my best friend took his own life.”

The website -- filled with postcards that are funny, mysterious, heart wrenching, shocking, sarcastic, and sad -- has more than a few images of people expressing some kind of mental distress. One postcard reads, “I’m afraid I have an undiagnosed mental illness.” Another showing a person in mental distress, says, “The meds don’t work. But I say they do. And no one knows.”

“I think one reason over 3,000 people have confided their most guarded secrets with me is because I have demonstrated my respect for their secrets and earned their trust by supporting an important cause,” Warren said. “I believe the relationship between PostSecret and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center contributes to that trust.”

PostSecret is the third major art project Warren has completed in recent years. The art, he said, got him through some very difficult times in his life. “Art is where I could find some solace,” Warren explains.

Beginning in November 2004 as an art exhibit, Postsecret has become quite popular. It was rated one of the 50 coolest websites by Time Magazine and the magazine called it “a fascinating public airing of private thoughts.” Washington City Paper, an alternative newspaper in the nation’s capital, also runs a new postcard from Postsecret each week.

Those who have visited the site also give it a thumbs-up. Therapists have recommended it to their clients, some have hosted Postsecret parties where everyone makes a postcard. And postcards flood in from around the world.

“I found your site beautiful, heartbreaking, funny and inspirational all at the one time … I’m not so different after all; no one is,” writes someone from Scotland.

One Postsecret visitor from Minnesota received a true revelation: “I just realized something about myself today that I had never known before, something life-changing. I’m thankful I realized this at 17, instead of years from now when it could be too late to attempt to change.”

The rules for the site are simple. The secrets had to be true, never told to anyone and placed on a postcard. What resulted was artful and confessional and even inspired Warren to participate himself. He created a postcard about a childhood humiliation and mailed it to himself.

Placing the card in the mailbox was liberating.

“The healing I felt from sharing my secret helps me look beyond some of the painful details included in the secrets I read everyday,” Warren said. “I can see the anguish and remorse expressed on the surface of the card and understand the relief that can come from facing and releasing a guarded secret.”

But not all postcards express remorse. Some express hope: “I am so grateful to the psychiatrist I saw when I was nineteen, who told me I would be fine again,” the postcard reads, picturing a suburban house with air balloons hovering overhead. “He saved my life.”

Every Sunday Warren posts new postcards, and regrets that he cannot include all that he receives. He plans to publish the secrets in a book next year.

“I regret that I can’t share the power, vulnerability and courage of each and every secret mailed in,” Warren said in a statement on the web site. “Hopefully, I can compile a book with many of the equally gripping secrets that have not been posted here.”

To visit Postsecret, go to

www.Postsecret.com.

To see the “Dirty Little Secret” video by the All American Rejects, visit

http://www.allamericanrejects.com/media_videos.asp

To view Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites list:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1072872,00.html

Learn more about the Kristin Brooks Hope Center:

www.hopeline.com

Battle Wounds - Countering suicide in
soldiers and vets

More than 130,000 U.S. troops began coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2004. Nearly that many more will rotate into those countries to replace departing troops in what has become the largest mobilization of American military personnel in more than a decade.
Not since Vietnam has exposure to combat violence been as great for U.S. troops as what they may be encountering in Iraq and Afghanistan. Returning troops bring with them both physical and emotional battle wounds.

Alcohol and Suicide: An Inextricable Link

For centuries society has recognized an inextricable link among alcohol, self-destructive behaviors and suicide. This link is apparent in some of the most talented creative geniuses among us, including acclaimed writer Ernest Hemingway, legendary for excessive drinking and severe depression. Hemingway used a shotgun to end his life on July 2, 1961, following in the footsteps of his father, brother and sister who also killed themselves. His eldest granddaughter Margaux, a model and film actress, too ended her life by overdosing on barbiturates in July 1996.
What have we learned about the relationship between alcohol and suicide, among not only creative minds but society-at-large?
Decades of research strongly suggest that alcohol is a contributing factor in scores of suicides for both men and women. One study showed that between 18 and 66 percent of suicide victims have alcohol in their blood at time of death. Read more...

Federal support moves suicide prevention forward

SAMHSA-funded SPRC assists states with developing, implementing prevention strategies

About half the states in the nation gathered at two key training conferences in late 2003 to define or refine their state-based suicide prevention efforts and learn what strategies work well in neighboring states with similar characteristics.
The conference name? Implementing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Collab-oration and Action Across the Nation.
Hosting these conferences – the first ever collaborative training meetings of their kind – was the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, or SPRC, one of the newest prevention entities in the country and funded by federal dollars to fulfill a goal of the 2001 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP).
Read more...

"A landmark program beyond compare"

With the December 2003 publishing of the University of Rochester study of suicide in the U. S. Air Force (USAF), “Preventing Suicide” is proud to present an in-depth look at this groundbreaking program - the first of its kind to suggest that suicide is indeed a preventable health problem.

In this series we consider this landmark community-based program and its publication in the Dec. 13 “British Medical Journal” from various angles:
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