AFSP identifies areas for investment to prevent suicide

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recently determined three critical areas for investment that would significantly affect suicide prevention in the United States.

“As the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, suicide does not get the attention it deserves. For years there has been a gap between what the research tells us works in preventing suicide and what actually happens in health care settings and communities across the country,” Robert Gebbia, MA, CEO of AFSP, said in a press release. “This phase of Project 2025 gives us a clear and focused prescription of how to reduce the suicide rate. As a country, we need to invest in what we know works. We know we can’t do this alone. This will require an all-out effort from leaders across all industry sectors and communities nationwide. Together, we will save thousands of lives.”

Robert Gebbia

The foundation used a dynamic systems model designed by CALIBRE Systems and input from a national advisory council of field experts to determine the following areas of need and their potential impact on suicide prevention:

Firearms and suicide prevention — The foundation estimates that if 50% of individuals who purchased firearms were exposed to suicide prevention education, 9,500 lives would be saved through 2025;

Large health care systems — Identifying individuals at risk for suicide in large health care systems, such as during primary care visits, could save an estimated 9,200 lives through 2025; and

Emergency departments — identifying individuals at risk for suicide in EDs and providing short-term intervention and better follow-up care could save approximately 1,100 lives through 2025.

AFSP has begun funding research sites in each of these areas and recently established a partnership with the National Sports Shooting Foundation to develop and implement public education resources for firearm retailers, shooting ranges and the firearm-owning community.

For more information :

To learn more about AFSP’s Project 2025, visit https://afsp.org/american-foundation-suicide-prevention-launches-project-2025/.