The Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention
Suicide prevention is rooted in a public health model. It’s complex and must involve your entire education community. As stated by our colleagues at SPRC, a combination of efforts is required to address different aspects of the problem.
Adapted from SPRC with permission.
Prevention is Comprehensive.
Early identification and treatment options are incorporated with education and social marketing to promote protective factors and a willingness to seek help.
Prevention is Data-Driven.
Surveys, focus groups, and interviews are used to identify needs, challenges, and strengths. This data informs and guides program planning.
Prevention is Multidisciplinary.
Educators, counselors, and staff from multiple campus departments are all important. This is too big of a job for one office to manage effectively.
Understanding the 9 Strategies:
Each of these needs to be implemented on your campus for effective suicide prevention.
1. Identify and Assist Persons at Risk
Some students underestimate their distress or resist seeking help. Campuses can address this by training faculty, staff, and students to identify at-risk individuals and establishing clear procedures for connecting them with appropriate care and support services.
2. Increase Help-Seeking
Under 40% of students with function-impairing anxiety or depression seek counseling services. Nationally, only about one-third of suicide victims were receiving treatment, despite appropriate treatment significantly reducing suicide risk. Students in emotional distress should be encouraged to access support best suited to their needs, allowing them to refocus on academic success.
3. Enhance Life Skills and Resilience
Increase campus-wide emotional well-being by proactively building life skills and resilience in all students, particularly those facing numerous challenges. Any student might develop mental distress or suicidal thoughts when confronted with overwhelming academic, social, and personal stressors. Campuses can implement various strategies to help students develop essential coping skills for life’s challenges.
4. Respond Effectively to Individuals in Crisis
Implement training, policies, and protocols to identify and respond to suicide risk. Campus communities need natural helpers trained to communicate with distressed individuals and connect them to appropriate campus care. For more serious cases, establish clear guidelines on when to notify parents or recommend hospitalization, along with supportive medical leave policies.
5. Ensure Access to Effective Mental Health and Suicide Care and Treatment
If students seek counseling, they should receive evidence-based care proven to reduce suicide risk and address mental health concerns. Counseling staff must be specifically trained in assessing and treating suicidal thoughts and behaviors. While campuses cannot provide all levels of care, institutions are responsible for helping students locate necessary services elsewhere.
6. Support Safe Care Transitions and Create Organizational Linkages
When students have previous treatment history or multiple providers, ensuring complete communication during care transitions is essential. Similarly, students initially seeking on-campus services may require transfer to different care levels outside the institution. Effective transitions can be facilitated through case managers, standardized consent procedures, and established referral agreements with external providers.
7. Reduce Access to Means of Suicide
To effectively prevent suicide, restricting access to lethal means is crucial. Research shows that means safety measures significantly reduce suicide rates. Effective strategies include policies for safe gun storage with campus security, securing windows and balconies on tall buildings, locking up dangerous chemicals, and counseling students about means safety when appropriate.
8. Provide for Immediate and Long-Term Postvention
After a suicide, campus response significantly impacts at-risk students and the community’s emotional health. A comprehensive postvention plan should be established before any death occurs, including protocols for campus notifications, support resources for everyone affected (including those who didn’t know the deceased), and appropriate ways to honor the individual’s life without increasing contagion risk.
9. Promote Social Connectedness and Belonging
Enhancing student connectedness builds a stronger, healthier campus while reducing suicide risk. Strategies include supportive housing policies, diverse clubs and activities, and encouraging positive relationships with faculty and staff who serve as advisors and mentors.
Develop a plan for your campus.
As caring and committed professionals, what can we do to prevent suicide? How do we use our resources most efficiently and effectively? How can we promote mental health so that fewer people will be at risk?
Free Online Course:
Comprehensive Suicide Prevention
Suicide prevention requires intentional planning to reduce the risk for suicide and enhance the mental health of your entire campus community. This online course walks you through it.