Resource Types: Toolkit

Best and Promising Practices for the Implementation of Zero Suicide in Health and Behavioral Health Care Systems in Indian Country

This toolkit contains recommendations for the implementation of Zero Suicide in Indian country and features forms and tools others have used in their own implementation, as well as videos featuring a variety of indigenous health systems that have committed to the implementation and indigenization of the Zero Suicide framework for their communities. The toolkit offers two in-depth views into very different health systems that are implementing Zero Suicide.

This is a companion toolkit to the original Zero Suicide Toolkit. 

Preventing Suicide: A Community Engagement Toolkit

This toolkit is a step-by-step guide for people who would like to initiate suicide prevention activities in their community. It describes a participatory bottom-up process by which communities (including community leaders, health workers, legislators, teachers, social workers, police and firefighters and business leaders) can work together to identify, prioritize and implement activities that are important and appropriate to their local context and that can influence and shape policy and services. Guidance and practical tools to help with goal setting, stakeholder mapping, and development of an action plan are included, as are examples of successful initiatives in the US and throughout the world. 

Suicide reporting recommendations: Media as partners in suicide prevention

The purpose of the toolkit is to provide media professionals with application-based recommendations drawn from those with lived experience related to suicide. It was developed by suicide prevention and mental health professionals to expand on existing guidelines and is meant to increase a journalist’s awareness of suicide reporting elements that will lead to authentic, meaningful, and responsible stories. 

Opioid epidemic practical toolkit: Helping faith and community leaders bring hope and healing to our communities

This toolkit was created to equip faith-based and community leaders to be able to respond to the current opioid health crisis while advancing their efforts to usher in a culture of compassion toward those who are struggling with addiction, and its often severe consequences. The toolkit, which is segmented into seven key areas, briefly covers practical ways communities and faith communities use their compassion and local understanding to bring hope and healing to those in need.

Coercion related to mental health and substance use in the context of intimate partner violence: A toolkit for screening, assessment, and brief counseling in primary care and behavioral health settings

This toolkit provides trauma-informed guidance on integrating questions about mental health and substance use coercion experienced by victims of IPV into routine mental health and substance use histories and into in-depth assessments in primary care and behavioral health settings. It is intended to be used in conjunction with comprehensive guidance on trauma-informed approaches to screening, assessment, and brief intervention for IPV in healthcare, mental health, and substance abuse treatment settings. Intimate partner victimization places people at significantly higher risk for depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, medical problems, substance use, and suicide attempts.

RISING SUN toolkit

The Reducing the Incidence of Suicide in Indigenous Groups – Strengths United through Networks (RISING SUN) web-based toolkit covers key outcomes and measures to assess the impact and effectiveness of suicide prevention interventions in the circumpolar Arctic among Indigenous communities and was developed though engagement with Indigenous peoples’ organizations and community leaders. Geared toward communities, clinicians, policymakers and researchers the toolkit provides a general introduction to suicide prevention efforts in circumpolar Indigenous communities, guidance on how to alleviate this public health threat and lessons learned from communities that have successfully implemented effective suicide prevention interventions and strategies with best practices for using the toolkit. It was developed while the United States held the two-year rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council from April 24, 2015 to May 11, 2017 which has since been passed to Finland.

After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools, Second Edition

After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools assists schools in implementing a coordinated response to the suicide death of a student. Originally developed in 2011, the second edition includes new information and tools that middle and high schools can use to help the school community cope and reduce suicide risk. The toolkit was developed in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and in consultation with national experts, including school-based administrators and staff, clinicians, researchers, and crisis response professionals. It is designed primarily for administrators and staff but can also be useful for parents and communities. 

Highlights of the second edition include:

  • Updated information on such topics as memorialization, social media, and contagion
  • Updated resource lists
  • A new tool to help with decision-making about memorials
  • New examples of how different communities have addressed specific issues in responding to a suicide death

Opioid overdose prevention toolkit

This toolkit offers strategies to health care providers, communities, and local governments for developing practices and policies to help prevent opioid-related overdoses and deaths. In this revised edition, separate sections are geared toward first responders, prescribers, patients and families, and those recovering from opioid overdose. The toolkit is also available is Spanish. 

ASQ Ask suicide-screening questions toolkit

The ASQ Toolkit provides resources tailored to the emergency department, inpatient medical/surgical unit, outpatient primary care, and specialty clinics. It includes a brief suicide risk screening tool, resources for effectively implementing suicide risk screening, and guides for managing patients who screen positive. The toolkit also provides guidance for engaging families and creating a safety plan.