Suicide Prevention

The Suicide Prevention Plan for Ohio is the result of a statewide effort to guide Ohio’s suicide prevention efforts. Diverse stakeholders partnered with state and county agencies, private providers, philanthropic entities, local coalitions and advocacy voices- most importantly those families and suicide survivors-to craft this plan to mobilize and align efforts to prevention Suicide. For more information on the plan and its implementation, please visit https://www.ohiospf.org/download/suicide-prevention-report/.

Suicide Prevention Coalitions

Ohio’s communities are an integral partner in the implementation of suicide prevention efforts and provide a vital setting to ensure these efforts have a large reach. Effective community-based efforts are focused on empowering individuals and communities to create environments that promote and support healthy lives by improving physical, mental, emotional and social health by increasing knowledge, skills and influencing attitudes. This also includes addressing stigma and social determinants of health impact health, well-being, and quality of life. Examples of SDOH include:

• Safe housing, transportation, and neighborhoods
• Racism, discrimination, and violence
• Education, job opportunities, and income
• Access to nutritious foods and physical activity opportunities
• Polluted air and water
• Language and literacy skills

Social Determinants of Health also contribute to wide health disparities and inequities. To truly impact community change, people must come together to identify a common problem and mobilize resources to implement best practice strategies. Suicide and other behavioral health problems are complex social issues too large to tackle by any one organization. Because of this, community coalitions, representing many sectors of the community are a vital strategy in addressing complex social problems such as suicide.

Ohio’s Suicide Prevention coalitions play an important role in understanding the problem of suicide in a community and helping to identify strategies that may be most culturally appropriate, relevant and effective. By engaging in a data-driven, strategic planning process, suicide prevention coalitions can develop comprehensive, evidence informed plans that lead to the development of safe, supportive environments focused on prevention and access to the highest quality suicide care. For more information on suicide prevention coalitions in Ohio please visit:

• https://www.ohiospf.org/coalitions-2/
• https://suicideprevention.ohio.gov/Communities/Coalitions

Gatekeeper Trainings

Identifying and assisting individuals at risk for suicide is a key component of a comprehensive approach to preventing suicide. Friends, family, co-workers, and others can help if they know how to recognize and respond to the signs of suicide risk. Providing Gatekeeper trainings in communities, teaches people to identify individuals who are showing warning signs of suicide risk and help these individuals get the services they need.

When considering gatekeeper trainings in your community the follow should be should/must be considered:

• Targeting individuals who have regular interaction with people who may be at increased risk for suicide is critically important to reducing suicide. For example, high school teachers and students; first responders; faith community leaders; and people who work with older adults, LGBT youth, men in the middle years, veterans, and those involved in the criminal justice system.
• Adapting a gatekeeper training to meet the cultural needs of the community in which they are used.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center has additional information regarding selecting gatekeeping training appropriate for your setting and guidance for culturally adapting gatekeeper trainings.

• Gatekeeper Matrix
• Guidance for Culturally Adapting Gatekeeper Trainings

• Question Persuade Refer (do we refer them to OSPF who can do training)
• Working Minds-Suicide Prevention in the Workplace (do we refer them to OSPF who can do training)
• Mental Health First Aid
• Youth Mental Health First Aid

OhioMHAS supports the belief that individuals under the care of health and behavioral health systems, that including substance use treatment setting, are preventable. If your organization is dedicated to improving patient safety, Zero Suicide presents an aspirational challenge and practical framework for system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care. To learn more about the Zero Suicide framework and how to get started, please visit http://zerosuicide.edc.org/.

Suicide prevention efforts must be data driven in order to be effective, culturally appropriate and sustainable. Because of this, it is critical to develop skills related to data collection, analysis and dissemination are needed. We know that there is not a single source that can provide all data needed to understand the suicide problem, including data on suicide deaths, attempts, thoughts, and related risk and protective factors. The following resources can be utilized to help gather and use data to guide decisions—from identifying which problems to address in their communities, to choosing the most appropriate ways to address these problems, to determining whether communities are making progress.

• OHYES! Data for Schools and Communities-The Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey (OHYES!) is a free, voluntary, web-based survey to collect information that schools and communities can use to access resources to reduce risk behaviors and create healthy and safe community, school and family environments. The survey is available for students in grades 7 through 12 and the data helps Ohio schools, community leaders, and parents identify important areas of need and track improvements in health and safety over time. Learn more.
• Ohio Public Health Information Warehouse- The Ohio Public Health Information Warehouse is a self-service online tool where anyone can obtain the most recent public health data available about Ohio. The application allows for the creation of custom reports, charts and maps from a variety of data sources. View the information warehouse.
• Injury and Surveillance Data- The Ohio Violence and Injury Prevention Section (VIPS) is a data driven program that uses population-based surveillance systems and additional data sources to inform prevention activities, policies and program evaluation efforts. The VIPS assesses the impact of violence and injury on Ohio’s population by analyzing morbidity, mortality and survey data. View the data.