New Strategy Plan for Suicide Prevention Announced

The Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and the U.S. surgeon general on September 10 issued an updated National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. The strategy seeks to lessen the stigma that deters discussion of suicide and interventions to prevent it; promote the integration of general and mental health care; enhance clinical and community preventive services; promote the availability of timely treatment and support services; and improve suicide-prevention surveillance collection and research.

Research is a major component of the new strategy, said Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “This is a tough scientific problem.... The factors that contribute to suicide are multiple and complex. No single approach will suffice, and there are no simple answers to why any one individual takes his or her own life.” A separate suicide-related research agenda will be ready in 2013 and will guide studies of risks and interventions, Insel noted.

To read more about suicide-prevention strategies, see Psychiatric News here. For a comprehensive review of suicide-related issues, see the new publication, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Suicide Assessment and Management, Second Edition here.

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