NIMH funds suicide prevention research, supports Zero Suicide

The NIMH recently announced the funding of three studies that support the Zero Suicide commitment to preventing suicide attempts and deaths among individuals treated in health care systems.

Zero Suicide is a campaign led by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention focused on improving identification of suicide risk in health care systems and development and implementation of effective treatments for individuals at risk for suicide.

To support Zero Suicide, the NIMH issued a request for applications in November 2015 to fund research on practices for safer health care outcomes in at-risk individuals and suicide prevention strategies for a variety of health care settings.

Three studies submitted during the first round of applications have received NIMH funding. They include:

A study comparing quality improvements in suicide prevention across 145 outpatient state licensed clinics, representing 85 New York state agencies, 1,490 clinical providers and 80,000 adult patients;
A System of Safety study assessing expansion of the Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow-up Evaluation (ED-SAFE) to additional care settings in the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care system, including six EDs, 25 inpatient units and eight primary care clinics; and
A study comparing Zero Suicide practices with a stepped care treatment approach for youth at risk for suicidal behavior within the Kaiser Permanente Norwest health system.

The NIMH plans to conduct a second round of requests for applications for Zero Suicide in November 2016.

For more information:

To learn more about Zero Suicide, visit http://zerosuicide.sprc.org/.