Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

In an effort to comprehensively address a recent rise in youth suicides, Oakland County Health Division (OCHD) implemented its Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative. The Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative promotes mental health awareness and stigma reduction, while also providing valuable prevention, intervention and post-vention resources to County residents and public service agencies. This initiative includes convening a task force consisting of partners from multiple community sectors who promote awareness about suicide prevention strategies and train professionals to recognize at-risk behaviors; providing technical assistance and education to key stakeholders; developing a school toolkit that was distributed to 400 middle and high schools staff; producing and distributing 15,000 parent education toolkits; holding two training-based forums; engaging youth involvement; and launching a countywide public awareness campaign that included posters distributed to middle and high schools, social media messaging, Public Service Announcements (PSAs), and advertising publicizing the local suicide prevention helpline. The accomplishments of the initiative were achieved in a timely and responsive manner and exemplify a framework and protocol for a sustainable, replicable youth suicide prevention model for other communities.