Suicide Prevention Strategy

The Florida Suicide Prevention Strategy (1,537 K) calls for an integrated and long-term approach to lowering the state’s current suicide rate. It offers a comprehensive framework for actions that can help decrease the suicide rate in the state. The Florida Suicide Prevention Strategy is designed to add depth and momentum to the efforts consolidated and recharged in the first few years of this century. Its purpose is to serve as both a guide and an action agenda for preventing suicide in Florida, to have a lasting impact in bringing suicide to the forefront as a public issue, and over time to save thousands of lives.

Strategy Areas of Focus

Public Awareness and Education

Reduce stigma of mental illness
Improve public knowledge
Teach intervention skills
Social marketing

Screening and Intervention

Screening individuals for mental illness and suicidal ideation

Research

Improve data collection
Conduct psychological autopsies

Addressing Treatment Needs

Addressing disparities in treatment coverage
Ensuring quality care
Education about medications

Education & Training

Gatekeeper training to learn the warning signs of suicide
First responders and crisis intervention training
Educating physicians

Creating Safer Environments

School intervention
Bullying prevention
Limiting access to lethal means

Postvention (Actions after a Suicide)

Responsible media coverage
Assisting survivors (those who have lost a loved one to suicide)

Goals & Objectives

The Strategy has three basic goals:

To decrease the incidence of suicide in Florida by one third (from approximately 14.1 per 100,000 in 2001 to approximately 9.4 per 100,000 by the end of 2010)
To decrease the incidence of teen suicide in Florida by one third (from approximately 9.5 per 100,000 in 2001 to approximately 6.3 per 100,000 in 2001 to approximately 6.3 per 100,000 by the end of 2010)
To decrease the incidence of elder suicide in Florida by one third (from approximately 20 per 100,000 in 2001 to approximately 13.3 per 100,000 by the end of 2010)

To accomplish these goals, the Strategy includes a number of related objectives, which focus on implementing policies and programs. These objectives are:

OBJECTIVE 1: Raise awareness and disseminate information about the risk factors and warning signs associated with suicide.

OBJECTIVE 2: Overcome the reluctance to talk about suicide as a major debilitating social phenomenon.

OBJECTIVE 3: Debunk myths about suicide that lead to greater risk of suicide or hinder its prevention.

OBJECTIVE 4: Implement prevention, intervention, and treatment activities that are effective in prevention of suicide and suicide attempts.

OBJECTIVE 5: Expand accessibility to substance abuse and mental health treatment.

OBJECTIVE 6: Mitigate risk among potential suicides by reducing access to lethal means.

OBJECTIVE 7: Provide training to gatekeepers and first responders on intervention skills in threatening situations.

OBJECTIVE 8: Implement screening systems to help identify those at risk for suicide.

OBJECTIVE 9: Support research for improved prevention and treatment modalities.

OBJECTIVE 10: Develop broad-based support for suicide prevention.

Only by setting policies and following through with programs in all of the areas and all of the ways outlined in the Strategy can we hope to address the complexity of the challenge. As new tools become available (e.g., research data, treatment modalities, survey instruments pharmacological breakthroughs, funding opportunites and so forth) this Strategy will seek to integrate them into its plan of action. We are resolved to reach our goals, however, and submit this Strategy as a means to that end.

Brochure

Brochure Cover The brochure highlights the fact that Florida has a state plan to reduce suicide, and it includes key elements such as an introduction, goals, area of focus, and the recommended action items provided by the Suicide Prevention Coordinating Council to implement the Strategy. Citizens are encouraged to distribute this brochure to people inside and outside of the prevention field who need to be made more aware. Because of the brochure’s aesthetically appealing nature, it could easily be placed on counters at doctors’ offices, pharmacy counters, left with hairstylists, bartenders, or other professions not typically associated with suicide prevention. Above is a PDF version, but because of the unusual folding pattern, it can be confusing to view electronically. For printed versions, please contact Stephen Roggenbaum at roggenba@fmhi.usf.edu.