Surveillance Success Stories – Fort Peck Indian Reservation

Following a suicide cluster in 2010, tribal leaders on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana began collecting data to establish a baseline understanding of suicidal behavior on the reservation so they could allocate resources and focus their suicide prevention efforts most effectively, as well as monitor cases over time to see if those efforts were working. This data analysis revealed that alcohol and/or other drugs played a role in more than 50 percent of all suicide attempts. More information on this project can be found in Surveillance Success Stories – The Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

This story is part of SPRC’s Surveillance Success Story Series, which describes how states, tribes, and health systems access and analyze data on suicide deaths and attempts, and use data to inform evaluation and program planning.