Supporting a public health approach to suicide prevention: Recommendations for state infrastructure.

The U.S. National Strategy for Suicide Prevention calls for states to identify supportive structures that encourage efficient, effective, and sustainable suicide prevention programming at the state, territorial, tribal, and local levels (HHS & Action Alliance, 2012). To meet this objective, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) completed a literature review and environmental scan, convened an advisory panel of suicide prevention experts, and conducted interviews with suicide prevention and policy experts to identify six essential state-level infrastructure elements: Authorize-Designate a lead organization for suicide prevention in the state and give it the resources to put a state plan into practice. Lead-Maintain a dedicated leadership and core staff positions in order to enact the plan. Create collaboration within state government. Partner-Ensure a state-level public-private partnership with a shared vision for suicide prevention. Examine-Encourage the collection and analysis of high-quality suicide data. Build-Support a multifaceted lifespan approach to suicide prevention across the state. Guide-Build state and local capacity for prevention. In this commentary, we recommend a framework for organizing an emerging evidence base on the infrastructure and systems that are needed to support an effective, sustainable, public health approach to suicide prevention.

Family centered brief intensive treatment: a pilot study of an outpatient treatment for acute suicidal ideation.

Family Centered Brief Intensive Treatment (FC BIT), a hospital diversion treatment program for individuals with acute suicidal ideation, was developed to treat suicidal clients and their families. Individuals who met criteria for hospitalization were treated as outpatients using FC BIT (n = 19) or an intensive outpatient treatment without the family component (IOP; n = 24). Clients receiving FC BIT identified family members or supportive others to participate in therapy. FC BIT clients had significantly greater improvement at the end of treatment compared to IOP clients on measures of depression, hopelessness, and suicidality. Further research is needed to test the efficacy of FC BIT.