Data linkage strategies to advance youth suicide prevention

The purpose of this review is to identify and describe data systems that can be linked to data from studies of youth suicide prevention interventions and to identify analytic approaches to advance youth suicide prevention research. It concluded there is a potential for linking existing data systems to evaluate broader and extended impact of suicide prevention interventions. While the report does not compare the effectiveness of interventions, it focuses on ages 0-25 spanning a period where suicide is rare but primary prevention could be effective, through a period when suicide rates increase.

Better evidence for decision-makers

This document examines flaws with current systems providing access for decision-makers to information about evidence-based programs and makes recommendations that emphasize contextual factors such as for whom is the intervention intended to help and under which circumstances. It proposes collaborative and fluid models where programs can adapt to new information and changing circumstances.

Challenges and recommendations for evaluating suicide prevention programs

This document provides “lessons learned” about evaluation and data and surveillance collection from two separate virtual communities of learning (CoLs) for tribal and state Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention grant  evaluators. The report highlights evaluation and data challenges and recommendations, tribal and state-specific evaluation concerns, resources, and case studies on how Garrett Lee Smith evaluators overcame particular evaluation challenges.

Suicide among veterans and other Americans, 2001–2014

As part of the VA-led Call to Action to Prevent Veteran Suicide, VA has undertaken the most comprehensive analysis of Veteran suicide in our nation’s history, examining more than 55 million records from 1979 to 2014 from all 50 states and four territories. This report describes the results of this effort. It is unprecedented in its breadth and depth of information about the characteristics of suicide among Veterans. It contains the first comprehensive assessment of differences in rates of suicide among Veterans with and without use of VHA services and comparisons between Veterans and other Americans.

Suicide in the workplace

This report describes trends in workplace (occurring at places of work) suicides from 1992 through 2013. Numbers of suicides were higher than they have ever been over that time period.

CCDC downtown Boise parking structures: Evaluation and recommendations related to suicide means accessibility

Using police dispatch report data for calls relating to mental health crises and/or suicidal subjects involving certain parking structures in Boise, Idaho, the Suicide Prevention Program sought to determine which attributes made a particular garage more frequently used than others by suicidal individuals. Through their findings they were able to recommend structural and other strategies such as signage with the crisis line number and training security officers and other parking structure personnel in crisis intervention. 

Status of Suicide in Tennessee

Status of Suicide in Tennessee is an annual report to provide state legislators, mental health professionals, and the general public with information on the problem of suicide in Tennessee and what is being done to prevent it. Each year’s edition includes a detailed report on suicide trends within the state, both overall and for various subgroups. Suicide trends over the past several years are discussed, broken down by age, race, gender, and geography. This webpage has links to the reports for 2012- 2015.