Evidence-Informed Suicide Prevention: Translating the 2024 National Strategy Into Practice

Evidence-Informed Suicide Prevention: Translating the 2024 National Strategy Into Practice CE Course (PDF document) – Online CE Course

Evidence-Informed Suicide Prevention: Translating the 2024 National Strategy Into Practice CE Course objectives, description, and outline

Course Objectives:

• Describe at least two current U.S. suicide epidemiological trends using recent CDC and SAMHSA data, including variations by age, gender, race/ethnicity, geography, and occupational group.
• Identify the four Strategic Directions and fifteen Goals of the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and explain how they structure a comprehensive public-health approach to suicide prevention.
• Discuss at least one upstream, downstream, and postvention strategy and evaluate their respective roles in preventing suicide risk, attempts, and deaths across the life span.
• Apply the Social Ecological Model to identify at least one individual, relationship, community, and societal risk and protective factor associated with suicidal behavior.
• Describe at least one role of health equity in suicide prevention, including how structural inequities, social determinants of health, and systemic barriers contribute to disparities among disproportionately affected populations.
• Assess at least one suicide risk pattern among specific populations, including youth, Veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals, American Indian/Alaska Native populations, and high-risk occupational groups, based on recent national data.
• Explain at least one structure and function of modern crisis-care systems, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, mobile crisis services, crisis stabilization, and continuity-of-care models.
• Explain the Zero Suicide framework as a systems-level approach to suicide prevention within health-care settings, including at least one of its implications for clinical practice and organizational culture.
• Interpret at least one role of surveillance, quality improvement, and research systems (e.g., NVDRS, emergency-department data, and population-based studies) in guiding evidence-informed suicide-prevention strategies.
• Identify at least two evidence-based prevention strategies, including lethal-means safety, responsible media reporting, workplace suicide-prevention initiatives, and community-based protective-factor enhancement.
• Discuss at least one comprehensive, multi-sector suicide-prevention principle into clinical, organizational, or community practice in a manner consistent with current federal guidance and ethical standards.

Course Description:

The new 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (National Strategy) is meant to address gaps in the field and to guide, motivate, and promote a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to suicide prevention in communities across the country. The comprehensive approach addresses the many factors associated with suicide, with the  recognition that there is no single solution. It seeks to prevent suicide risk in the first place (upstream prevention), identify and support people with increased risk through treatment and crisis intervention (downstream prevention), prevent reattempts, promote long-term recovery, and support survivors of suicide loss.

Course Outline:

1. 1. Introduction
   2. Strategic Direction 1: Community-Based Suicide Prevention
   3. Strategic Direction 2: Treatment and Crisis Services
   4. Strategic Direction 3: Surveillance, Quality Improvement, and Research
   5. Strategic Direction 4: Health Equity in Suicide Prevention
   6. Appendix

Instructors: Nicole Hiltibran, MA, LMFT; Julie Campbell, Phd

Author: Mental Health America (MHA)

Mental Health America (MHA) is the nation’s leading national nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of mental health, well-being, and illness prevention. Our work is informed, designed, and led by the lived experience of those most affected. Mental Health America advances the mental health and well-being of all people living in the U.S. through public education, research, advocacy and public policy, and direct service. We envision a world in which all people and communities have opportunity for mental well-being and are enabled to flourish and live with purpose and meaning.

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