We're looking forward to seeing you at NMA 2024! The Zero Suicide Institute at EDC will be presenting on August 6th from 2-3:30pm ET.

What is Zero Suicide?

People who die by suicide are touching our healthcare system: 84% of those who die by suicide have seen a healthcare provider in the year before their death. 92% of those who made a suicide attempt have seen a healthcare provider in the year before their attempt. Safer suicide care requires transformative change that cannot be borne solely by the practitioners providing clinical care; it requires a system-wide approach to improve outcomes and close gaps.

The Zero Suicide framework is based on this realization that suicidal individuals often fall through the cracks in a sometimes fragmented and distracted healthcare system. The framework offers healthcare systems a systematic approach to quality improvement to caring for those at risk for suicide that addresses these gaps in care.    

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Our Session

Breaking Barriers: Collaborative Approaches to Suicide Prevention in Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Psychiatry

Suicide is a significant public health concern, particularly among pediatric populations, with disparities in risk factors and access to mental health services playing a crucial role. This session focuses on the critical importance of addressing suicide prevention in health care settings for pediatric populations. Individuals experiencing suicidal ideation and behaviors are slipping through the cracks in our health and behavioral health systems. These gaps in care contribute to suicide being the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-24 in the United States, with rates steadily rising over the decades. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, mental health–related emergency department (ED) visits for suicide attempts among adolescents aged 12–17 increased by 31% in early 2021 compared to the same period in 2019 (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2023). 

Although systems may have access to best practices in suicide care, not all providers are adequately trained to implement these practices, nor do systems consistently monitor adherence to them. This contributes to adverse events. This session will highlight tools, interventions, and best practices that can reduce or close gaps in patient care and enhance patient safety.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this pediatric session on suicide prevention strategies, participants will be able to: 

• Understand the importance of addressing equity in suicide prevention efforts among pediatric populations. 
• Identify key disparities related to suicide risk factors, access to mental health services, and cultural considerations that impact pediatric suicide rates. 
• Understand and implement evidence-based strategies for promoting suicide prevention specifically tailored to pediatric populations. 

Related Resources

• Zero Suicide Toolkit: The Zero Suicide model operationalizes the core components necessary for health care systems to transform suicide care into seven elements. The Toolkit uses research, tools, and videos to walk implementers through putting the Zero Suicide model into practice.
• Children's Zero Suicide Toolkit: Zero Suicide is an adaptable model appropriate for a range of health and behavioral health settings and applicable across populations. The Zero Suicide Children's Toolkit is designed to complement the Zero Suicide Toolkit by filtering each element through a setting- and population-specific lens.
• Getting Started: Wondering how to get started with Zero Suicide in your organization? This resource outlines 10 steps to getting started.
• Organizational Self Studies: The Organizational Self-Study is designed to assess what components of the comprehensive Zero Suicide approach are currently in place and the degree to which the components are embedded within key organizational and clinical areas. The Organizational Self-Study also helps to assess organizational and clinical area-specific strengths and opportunities for development across each component.
• Populations Resources: Quick access to resources supporting safe suicide care for specific populations.
• Settings Resources: Quick access to resources supporting safe suicide care for specific settings.
• Stanley and Brown Safety Plan: A brief intervention tool intended to provide those experiencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts with specific ways to mitigate risk and increase safety.
• Best Practices in Care Transitions: A report that describes evidence-based practices for improving clinical care and outcomes for people with a history of suicide risk during the critical period of transition from inpatient to outpatient care.
• Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) Course: A free, self- paced course about how to reduce access to the methods people use to kill themselves. This course covers who needs lethal means counseling and how to work with people at risk for suicide—and their families—to reduce access.
• Preventing Suicide in Emergency Departments Course: This free, self- paced course teaches healthcare professionals who work in an ED how to conduct screenings, assessments, and brief interventions, such as safety planning and the lethal means of safety. It also addresses patient-centered care for individuals with suicide risk, patient safety during the ED visit, and incorporating suicide prevention into discharge planning.
• Columbia Suicide Risk Assessment Training: This free, online training from the New York State Office of Mental Health and Columbia University provides an overview of the instrument and teaches how and when to administer it in real-world settings. 
• Suicide Prevention Training Simulated Practice Suite: This suite of virtual patient training simulations provides an opportunity to practice assessing a patient’s risk of suicide, encouraging a patient to find motivations to seek treatment, and building individualized safety plans.
• Making it Matter with Micro Interventions Course: This online course for clinicians is designed to provide a practical and effective approach to supporting individuals experiencing loneliness, stress, mental health and substance use struggles, and suicidal thoughts.
• Safety Planning Training for Youth SPRC: This free, self-paced course for health, behavioral health, and mental health clinicians is designed to develop knowledge and skills regarding the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention.
• CALM for Pediatric Providers (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means to Prevent Youth Suicide): This course offers guidance to pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers to support families in reducing youths' access to suicide methods found in the home.