Community Mental Health and Suicide Prevention: Ideas for Strategies, Programs, and Projects
A laundry list of ideas to begin community suicide prevention efforts.
Set Up a Leadership Team
Create a plan
Get buy-in on plan; build momentum
Design evaluation and assessment methods
Create communication methods (e.g., newsletter, email)
Educate the leadership team
Engage first partners (e.g., Important community agencies, key individuals, faith communities, businesses, hospital staff, first responders)
Recruit a wide variety of people to serve a variety of roles, creating a community-wide safety net
Train Gatekeepers and Educate Community Members
Recruit from a wide variety of settings (e.g., school, business, faith communities, bartenders, hair stylists, city staff, nonprofits, health care workers, parents)
Engage gatekeepers in multiple discussion-based trainings
Train gatekeepers in what to look for, what to say, how to help, at-risk factors, etc.
Design regular conference events—such as conferences for business managers, faith community staff, teachers
Face-to-face or online classes, free to community members, on what to watch for and what to say to those exhibiting warning signs
Help Those Who are Vulnerable or At-Risk
Teach people about warning signs and risk factors
Implement suicide and depression screenings
Create short and long-term supports for postvention
Interventions and connections to vulnerable populations
Create targeted interventions for high-risk groups
Use leaders from high-risk groups to help design and implement interventions
Train parents to see troubling signs in kids
Increase Help-Seeking
Have authors write mental health materials
Create or curate websites and reliable sources of information
Design awareness campaigns that affirm that help is available
Design social media campaigns
Publicize telephone helplines
Create public events for the community, such as Jogging for Depression, Bowling for Mental Health
Train community leaders to talk about mental health issues and help-seeking
Bring in speakers such as local doctors and therapists (people will be more likely to seek help from those that they have met and interacted with)
Find ways to reduce stigma
Increase Access to Quality Care
Ensure that there are therapists and trained doctors within the community
Facilitate actual logistical access (i.e., evaluate insurance, transportation, waiting lists, etc.) for local therapists and doctors
Enable better financial access to therapists and doctors (can a local faith community pay for first visit? Are there community programs that could help financially?)
Evaluate whether health care facilities need improvement
Ensure that medical doctors are trained to recognize depression and at-risk issues
Increase Support During Care Transitions
Work with agencies to guarantee rapid referrals of vulnerable clients
Facilitate interagency agreements to make for easy transitions between care facilities
Patient and family education for transitions
Create support for those who in inpatient and outpatient facilities
Create support for those being released from psychiatric hospital facilities
Improve Crisis Care
Create walk-in clinics for those in mental health crises
Design local mobile crisis teams who can visit those in crisis
Make certain that the psychiatric emergency services in hospitals function efficiently
Create your own or publicize others’ telephone crisis lines
Create your own or publicize others’ text and online chat forums
Educate and support doctors so they know when medication is appropriate and when therapy or psychiatric referrals are more valuable
Build Resilience with Education Topics (Workshops, videos, writings, classes, etc.)
Problem solving and conflict resolution
Coping with stress
Purpose and meaning
Hope
Gratitude
Emotional stability
How to talk to someone who is in crisis
Spirituality
Involvement in hobbies and volunteer activities
Self-care practices
Life transitions—such as aging, illness, divorce, and grieving
Parent education (more effective parenting now can help to limit later problems)
Curiosity and Creativity
Build Supportive Communities
Promote community support and social connectedness
Train community leaders to amplify the message that help is available
Restrict access to lethal means for those who are vulnerable or in crisis
Train journalists in the best practices of suicide reporting
Train law enforcement in mental health issues, and provide rapid response mobile teams of therapists or social workers
Get first responders, community leaders, city councils, faith communities, and business owners to understand mental health issues and amplify mental health messages
Regularly teach mental health issues—such as depression, anxiety, and what to say to those in crisis
Get Businesses Involved
Provide mental health training for every new employee
Create mental health-friendly policies and procedures
Train managers to be gatekeepers
Train all employees in what to look for and what to say
Teach those who work with customers de-escalation training
Train the Next Group of Leaders
Choose a number of individuals to undergo intentional leadership training
Train the potential new leaders in community engagement skills
Train the potential new leaders in mental health knowledge
Train the potential new leaders in vision, courage, and leadership
This excerpt has been taken from the upcoming book Suicide Prevention and Mental Health: What Community Leaders Need to Know. This book is for local communities who seek to begin a program that minimizes suicide ideation and improves mental health. Coming Soon!
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