EDC's Education & Wellbeing team will present on Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention (MTSP) for Schools at the virtual Suicide Research Symposium April 23rd-25th, 2025.
Suicide Research Symposium 2025
We hope to see you at our session on school suicide prevention!
Session
Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention for Schools: A Framework with Evidence of Feasibility and Impact for Schools
When: April 25 from 4pm-5:30pm ET (1pm-2:30pm PT)
Presented by: EDC's Shawna Hite-Jones, Michelle Majeres, Akira Gutierrez Renzulli will be joined by Megan Ulrich with Tippecanoe School Corporation and Elizabeth Cunningham with Attica Consolidated School Corporation
Description: CDC data has shown rising rates of school-aged youth hopelessness, suicide thoughts, and suicide attempts over the past decade. Historic school-based efforts to prevent suicide have centered on one-time trainings on the warning signs of suicide; yet have not shown strong evidence of impact. In 2021, the Education Development Center (EDC) developed an evidence-informed framework to help school systems implement a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention across grade levels: Multi-Tiered Suicide Prevention for Schools (MTSP) provides 6 key components for schools to implement across their multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS).
This session will feature 3 EDC staff who will share on various aspects of the MTSP framework and service, pilot implementation, and resulting evaluation data: Michelle Majeres will provide an overview of MTSP and its implementation with 12 school districts in Northcentral Indiana. Shawna Hite-Jones will provide an overview of the MTSP environmental assessment and its pre-post data showing strong evidence of creating environmental change necessary for comprehensive suicide prevention in schools. Akira Gutierrez Renzulli will present on findings related to feasibility and acceptability of the project, demonstrating receptivity to implementation of MTSP in schools.
Finally, this session will feature 2 school district representatives who participated in the pilot implementation of MTSP: Elizabeth Cunningham and Megan Ulrich will share on their experiences implementing MTSP, their use of MTSP environmental assessment data, and their district impacts from participating in MTSP. Session participants will learn about the MTSP framework, its initial impact, demonstrated feasibility, and ideas for strengthening school-based suicide prevention efforts.
Resources
Want to learn more about developing community-led approaches to suicide prevention? Visit EDC's Community-Led Suicide Prevention.
Shawna Hite-Jones works in state, community, and school-based suicide prevention at EDC and has supported the development of EDC’s Community-Led Suicide Prevention Toolkit.
Akira Gutierrez Renzulli, senior research associate and technical assistance (TA) provider, brings 20 years of experience promoting healthy child and youth development.
Michelle Majeres, senior prevention specialist and behavioral health expert, has over 20 years of experience providing high-quality training and technical assistance (T/TA) in substance misuse prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion.