National Strategy for Suicide Prevention Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary

I have said many times that the annual American Association of Suicidology Conference is where our community meets. This year was no exception – I returned home from the April 14-17 conference in Portland, Oregon invigorated, connected, stimulated, challenged and pleasantly exhausted. 

At this year’s conference, I was struck by such a welcome balance of workshops and plenary sessions covering the range of participants in our field. Clinicians, researchers, suicide loss survivors, academics, community and state suicide prevention leaders and policy makers were all represented.  I was also quite pleased to see a strong presence from suicide attempt survivors.  By including all voices, we are most likely to make new discovery that will help us save lives.  What a credit to the conference chairs, leadership and organizers that they worked so hard to strike such a rich and robust balance.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s meeting.

Of particular significance this year was the celebration of the 10-year anniversary of our National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP).  This year’s conference made it clear to me that the Strategy represents all of us in the field and all of our important work.  While we took time to celebrate the past (see photo), we also took time to chart our future by hearing many sessions that spoke to the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.  This year’s attendance in Portland exceeded 950 individuals, the largest for our community’s annual gathering to date.   

I believe we are at a pivotal point in our history where we are mustering the political will to make change, following a strategy and revising that strategy through the Action Alliance to chart our future, and have assembled a knowledge base that can ensure our work moves forward in sound and measured steps.  It is these elements that Julius Richmond and Milton Kotelchuck proposed as essential ingredients for any public health strategy to achieve results.  I believe we are well on our way and I believe the NSSP was a vital step in this journey.  Happy 10^thAnniversary, NSSP!

Citation: Richmond J., & Kotelchuck M. (1991) Coordination and development of strategies and policy for public health promotion in the United States. In: W. Holland & R. Detels (Eds.), Oxford Textbook of Public Health. Oxford, England: Oxford Medical Publications.