UTAH: Plan Calls for Utah to Reduce Number of Suicides 10 Percent by 2021

January 26, 2017

News Type:  Weekly Spark, Weekly Spark News
Speaker:  Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah has released a suicide prevention plan that aims to reduce the state’s suicide rate 10 percent by 2021. The plan takes a multi-pronged approach to addressing suicide, outlining nine protective strategies, including increased access to health care and community-based supports. “Everyone plays a role in suicide prevention and it is up to each one of us to help create communities which are strong in factors that protect people from suicide,” said Andrea Hood, a suicide prevention expert in the state Department of Health. Another key element of the plan is a recommendation to reduce access to firearms for individuals who are at risk, with a call to include suicide prevention “as a basic tenet of firearm safety and responsible firearm ownership.” Explained Hood, “If we can get people through that crisis state by reducing their access to firearms and their means of taking their life during that time, they often go on to seek help and have recovery. Many may never be suicidal again.”

Spark Extra! Read the Utah Suicide Prevention Plan.