Mississippi Department of Mental Health

Mississippi Youth Suicide Prevention Project, will be utilized to support Mississippi in strengthening and implementing statewide youth suicide prevention strategies through collaboration with youth-serving institutions and agencies such as educational institutions, providers of substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, providers of mental health programs, and community based coalitions reaching out to at-risk youth throughout our state.The population of focus will include youth, ages 15-24, throughout MS. The population of focus will also include community level gatekeepers throughout MS. Available, approachable, and accessible community level gatekeepers that blend public and private entities are key to motivating entire communities to take action to prevent youth suicide and promote good mental health. This project seeks to develop broad based support for youth suicide prevention from community level gatekeepers so that prepared community level gatekeepers are engaged in activities that are coordinated and address strategies outlined in Mississippi Youth Suicide Prevention Plan.

Additionally, Mississippi seeks to engage youth in planning and implementing youth suicide prevention strategies, particularly those activities that relate to social marketing and conducting information and awareness campaigns through the use of new media. The Mississippi project will support SAMHSAs goals that include: increase the number of persons in youth serving organizations that are trained to identify and refer youth at-risk for suicide; increase the number of health, mental health and substance abuse providers trained to assess, manage and treat youth at risk for suicide; increase the number of youth identified as at risk for suicide, increase the number of youth referred for behavioral health care services; increase the number of youth at risk for suicide who receive behavioral health care services; and increases the promotion of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Mississippi will maximize our ability to prevent, intervene, and respond to our youth suicide crisis; while striving to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the incidents of youth suicide in our state.