About the Academy 

Dates

Academy Part 1: Introducing Zero Suicide (2 hours- Virtual)

Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 from 8:00am-10:00am PT

Academy Part 2: Implementing Zero Suicide (2 days- Virtual)

Monday, June 9th, 2025 from 8:00am-4:00pm PT

Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 from 8:00am-4:00pm PT

Academy Part 3: Sustaining Zero Suicide (2 hours- Virtual)

Wednesday, July 9th, 2025 from 8:00am-10:00am PT

Description

The Zero Suicide Academy® is EDC’s signature learning series for health and behavioral health organizations seeking to dramatically reduce suicides among those in their care. Led by EDC’s expert Zero Suicide staff and faculty at your location, the Zero Suicide Academy provides up to 16 teams from health and behavioral health organizations with an invaluable opportunity to kick off or reinvigorate their Zero Suicide implementation, learn about the Zero Suicide framework and seven elements, begin strategic implementation planning, and prepare for commonly faced challenges. Teams will also have an opportunity to network with similar organizations and establish relationships with each other and our team for ongoing assistance.  

Using the Zero Suicide framework, participants learn how to incorporate best and promising practices into their organizations and processes to improve care and safety for individuals at risk of suicide. The event includes both interactive presentations and small group sessions. There is time for our staff and faculty to collaborate with teams to develop organization-specific action plans.

Learn More

Eligibility

Oregon healthcare organizations interested in adopting Zero Suicide framework, as well as any current implementing organizations who need to onboard new team members may apply.

Each team will also need to complete the Oregon ZS Implementation Assessment on the PSU Human Services Implementation Lab website by May 30. You can view the Oregon ZS Implementation Tool here to prepare for submission.

Objectives

The objectives of the Zero Suicide Academy are to:

• Provide organizations interested in adopting a Zero Suicide approach with the skills and information necessary to launch and sustain their effort. 
• Create opportunities for participating teams to share knowledge, perspectives, and implementation stories to inform, encourage and support Zero Suicide initiatives.  
• Engage participating teams in activities and discussions to aid in enhancing staff readiness and short-term implementation plans to support the Zero Suicide initiatives in their organization.

How To Apply

Participant Eligibility

All health and behavioral health systems are eligible to apply.

Applicants are to attend the Zero Suicide Academy® with a team of 4 individuals (including the team lead).

Recommendations for the team composition include: 

Person(s) responsible and with authority for implementation decsions (e.g. Medical Doctor, CIO, ED, BH Director, or IT)

• At least one leader/management (irrespective of discipline area). 
• At least one person who manages your electronic health records (EHR) system, quality improvement, or risk management.
• At least one person (e.g., case manager, doctor, psychologist, social worker, nurse, other) who provides care to patients daily.
• Zero Suicide implementation team members should include persons who can both champion Zero Suicide with passion and those who have some power and influence in your system. This can include clinical directors, senior clinical staff with coordination over a certain area or department, information technology, risk management or quality improvement, or a person with lived experience.  

Application Instructions

All organizations wishing to be considered for the Zero Suicide Academy will submit the application by clicking 'apply' by May 23rd, 2025, 6 p.m. ET.

Please submit one application per team. Individual team members do not have to apply separately. The application should be under the team lead and list all team members.   

Application submission should include the following:

1. A letter of commitment written by the organization's CEO/Senior Executive Leader. The CEO/Senior Executive Leader should review and approve the submission and agree to the strategy proposed. You can review a template with suggested language here.    

2. When completing the application, you will be asked to provide: 

• Contact information for your team members
• A brief description of your team's relevant skills, knowledge, and experience.
• Your team's goals for participating in the Zero Suicide Academy
• As part of your engagement with the ZS Academy, OHA, through a contract with the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Program (AOCMHP), will be offering access to grant dollars, between $11,000 and $20,000 per team based on number of participating orgaizations, to be used to facilitate implementation activities after the ZS Academy. A final proposal for the utilization of these dollars will be due to OHA no later than June 20, 2025. In no more than 350 words, please outline in your application the initial plan for how your organization will use this grant to facilitate implementation and what are the intended outcomes for these activities.

3. Each team will need to complete a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AOCMHP related to full team attendance at all three parts of the ZS Academy and mini-grant funds. Each team will need to upload the completed MOU with their application. Click here for MOU

Each team will also need to complete the Oregon ZS Implementation Assessment on the PSU Human Services Implementation Lab website by May 30. If your team has updated yours in the last year, you can use the existing one, which the I-Lab should have on file already. Please contact Meghan Crane at meghan.crane@oha.oregon.gov.