Zero Suicide is a national movement within health and behavioral health care settings to create systems for suicide prevention that identify, treat, and support patients at risk of suicide. Data indicate that 83% of those who die by suicide have seen a health care provider in the year before their death, with 64% having been seen by a primary care provider (Ahmedani et al., 2014). Suicide prevention within health care settings requires leaders committed to undertaking the necessary changes in policies and practices, training of staff on best practices for identifying, engaging and treating at risk patients, continuity of care practices that assure ongoing support, and a process for continuous quality improvement.
The Oregon Health Authority with assistance from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration through funding from the Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention initiative has supported Zero Suicide Prevention initiatives across the state. Zero Suicide is taking place within health and behavioral health service systems and hospitals in various counties and tribal communities.
AVAILABLE TOOLS
The tools in this toolkit have been created by local Oregon communities to aid their implementation of Zero Suicide and are shared here in hopes that they might be of assistance to others. Links are also provided to the National Zero Suicide Toolkit that examines in more depth the 7 key elements of: Lead, Train, Identify, Engage, Treat, Transition and Improve.