Using Surveillance Data in Suicide Prevention
Designed for suicide prevention practitioners, Using Surveillance Data in Suicide Prevention offers an overview of common terms and concepts used in epidemiology. This one-hour podcast also provides information on how to identify and find data for suicide prevention, and explores traditional and non-traditional partners who can help in this effort. The podcast offers a real-life example on how data from Colorado’s Violent Death Reporting System has been used to guide community-based suicide prevention efforts.
Mr. Kirk Bol is the manager of Colorado’s Registries and Vital Statistics Branch at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Here he provides strategic oversight and statistical expertise for a branch comprised of diverse public health surveillance programs, including Colorado’s vital statistics program, the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System, medical aid-in-dying reporting, and Colorado’s statewide, population-based cancer and birth defects registries. Mr. Bol has also taught graduate-level courses in public health surveillance, research strategies and analytic methods as an adjunct instructor for the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, and currently sits on the board of directors for the National Association of Public Health Statistics and Information Systems, the national membership organization for state and territorial vital records and statistics offices. Mr. Bol received a Masters in Science in Public Health from the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center.(or is it University of Colorado School of Public Health?)
Dr. Kristen Quinlan is lead epidemiologist for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), where she provides recommendations to state and local prevention systems on collecting, analyzing and using existing suicide-related data and/or building needed infrastructure to improve suicide-related data collection for planning, quality improvement, and/or impact purposes. Dr. Quinlan is also the Director of the Outreach Core for the Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention (ICRC-S), where she is responsible for translating the latest suicide prevention research into practice through blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, and an annual webinar series. Dr. Quinlan received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Rhode Island.
Additional resources:
- SPRC online course: Locating and Understanding Data for Suicide Prevention
- Colorado Violent Death Reporting System: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/colorado-violent-death-reporting-system
- Colorado Suicide Data Dashboard: https://cohealthviz.dphe.state.co.us/t/HSEBPublic/views/CoVDRS_12_1_17/Story1?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:showShareOptions=true&:display_count=no&:showVizHome=no#4
- Strategies for reporting/communicating appropriately about suicide: http://reportingonsuicide.org