Citation

Varia SG, Ebin J, Stout ER. J. Rural Ment. Health 2014; 38(2): 109-115.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, National Association for Rural Mental Health, Publisher American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/rmh0000019

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Developing effective suicide prevention approaches for rural settings is critical for reducing rates nationwide. Although suicide is a public health problem that affects everyone, suicide rates are generally higher in rural areas (Hirsch, 2006). From October 2013 to April 2014, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) convened a Community of Practice (CoP), an interactive peer learning group of 26 organizations including state suicide prevention coordinators and federal Garrett Lee Smith youth suicide prevention grantees, to discuss challenges and strategies of rural suicide prevention work. They agreed that rural areas have limited mental health providers, barriers in accessing available providers, and stigma around talking about and seeking mental health treatment. In a series of virtual meetings, they shared experiences and strategies in 5 areas: improving access to treatment, addressing crisis response, using data to plan and evaluate prevention efforts, working cross culturally, and environmental changes. Drawing on these CoP discussions and prior research on effective approaches, SPRC developed 5 recommendations for rural suicide prevention: (a) train primary care professionals to screen for suicide risk, (b) use incentives to encourage mental health professionals to work in rural areas, (c) strengthen crisis centers' capacity to link to local resources, (d) establish crisis response protocols for the local community, and (e) target suicide prevention programming to community or population needs by collaborating with state partners to access local data on suicide deaths, attempts, and risk and protective factors.

Language: en