NIMH calls for increased efforts in suicide prevention

As National Suicide Prevention Month 2015 comes to a close, the NIMH highlighted agendas that have been implemented in the last year to increase suicide prevention and reduce suicide rates.

For 2015, the NIMH reinforced goals of the Prioritized Research Agenda for Suicide Prevention, which were released by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention in 2014. The agenda emphasized the importance of targeting interventions for specific risk groups, such as individuals in jails or prisons and those seen in EDs, and vulnerable times and settings.

In line with the agenda, the NIMH is collaborating with the National Institute of Justice to conduct the Suicide Prevention for at-Risk Individuals in Transition study, or “SPIRIT,” to lower the risk for suicide among individuals recently released from jail.

The NIMH also posted a concept aimed at preventing suicide in the juvenile justice system earlier this year.

According to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2008 to 2012, 29% of adults who attempted suicide in the last year, approximately 1.3 million individuals, received at least 1 night of inpatient mental health care that year.

These data suggest that health care providers have a crucial role in identifying those at risk for suicide.

In response to this, the National Action Alliance launched the Zero Suicide initiative in 2011 to prevent suicides in health care. Further, the NIMH issued a request for information earlier this year to receive feedback on approaches that could be used to identify components of inpatient care that are safe and effective in reducing suicide risk, and to identify alternatives to inpatient care and how to implement them.

The NIMH plans to release another concept that focuses on research to increase the number of “learning health care systems” that include suicide event rates in their business model.

The NIMH also issued a request for information regarding suicide risk among Alaska Native individuals, since recent data suggest the suicide rate in young adults of this group is five times the rate of suicide among white American young adults.

“Everyone can participate in suicide prevention. Research, however, can show the way by demonstrating what will be the most effective strategies for preventing suicide, for the greatest number of people,” the organization wrote in a press release.