RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHERS AND PROGRAM EVALUATORS

Foreword

BACKGROUND. For eight years following the suicide death of our daughter, Terri Ann Weyrauch, M.D., we volunteered in local and national organizations. We learned that even though there was a solid interest in non-government supported suicide research and professional continuing education, there was little dialogue among leaders of existing programs. Nor was there collaborative or consistent involvement in suicide prevention efforts. Additionally, few grassroots, non-professional survivors were involved or felt welcome to participate.

Lloyd Potter, Ph.D. (then with the CDC, Center for Injury Prevention and Control), was a U.S. representative to the 1993 World Health Organization Suicide Prevention Conference held in Calgary, Canada. Lloyd provided us with an advance draft of the paper that was later produced by the conference: Prevention of suicide: Guidelines for the formulation and implementation of national strategies (ST/ESA/245-UN, NYC, 1996). We immediately recognized that these guidelines provided the missing elements in the U.S. approach to suicide prevention. A nine-month feasibility study followed. All who were interviewed agreed the model could be useful in the U.S. Since no organization offered to incorporate the guidelines, it was obvious that it would become the work of the grassroots—survivors of suicide. Thus, the Guidelines became the base or foundation of SPAN USA.

The SPAN USA PLAN, Figure 1 (page 5), is the visual model of the mission of SPAN USA: Dedicated to the creation and implementation of proven effective national suicide prevention strategies.

UNDERSTANDING THE PLAN. Read the intertwined circles in a clockwise pattern. Start at the bottom, or GRASSROOTS. Grassroots represents the family or each community where suicide occurs and where suicide prevention must likewise take place.

ADVOCACY is the effort of the people to bring to the attention of their elected officials the need for resources to prevent suicide. It is based on the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "The people have a right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for change."

AWARENESS makes the public conscious of the need for suicide prevention. Every May there is a SPAN USA gathering in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate the need for suicide prevention legislation and to hand-deliver educational materials and signed petitions to each member of Congress. Lifekeeper State "Faces of Suicide" Quilts that portray real people who have died by suicide are displayed.

ADVOCACY and AWARENESS work together to develop "political will." The combination focuses attention to the problem of suicide and moves legislators to action!

RECOGNITION has been made of advocacy efforts by the Congress (1) in unanimously passing S. Res. #84 and H. Res. #212 (105th Congress) that declare suicide a national problem; (2) in conducting a Senate Hearing on Suicide (106th Congress); and (3) in appropriating $3 million for crisis line evaluation and authorizing $75 million for suicide prevention (106th Congress).

A 1997 STEERING committee provided the direction for a Consensus Development conference in the five high-suicide risk areas: the young; the elderly; consumers of mental health services; the chronically ill and a diverse population of Hispanic, Native American/Alaskan Indians; young black males and the gay, lesbian, transsexual, and bisexual people.

The SPAN USA SUMMIT meeting in Reno, Nevada, October 1998, presented the meta-analyses, peer-reviewed data of the best suicide prevention practices in the five high-risk areas (Tool #1a). Presented to Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services/ Surgeon General David Satcher were the 81 recommendations for suicide prevention distilled by an expert panel from more than 700 concepts presented by the conference delegation.

With the guidance of Dr. Satcher, a federal-private partnership extracted fourteen final recommendations to begin a national Suicide Prevention STRATEGY. These were published as The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide 1999 (Tool #1b).

The STRATEGY was further developed into Goals and Objectives of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy by Department of Health and Human Services experts (Tool #2). Yet to be produced are the Action Steps needed to implement this STRATEGY.

This booklet: SUICIDE PREVENTION: PREVENTION EFFECTIVENESS and EVALUATION (Tool #3), provides the basic tools needed to create effective suicide prevention plans. State Suicide Prevention Plans can adapt these evidence-based

and best practice recommendations to meet the needs of the people in their states. This process allows needed resources to be brought back to the GRASSROOTS.

But all this effort cannot lay dormant at the grassroots. It is only effective if it is implemented, EVALUATED, SHARED with others, and MODIFIED to meet the changing needs of each community. Only then can we begin to realize the value of Linking Research to Practice—the theme of the Reno Conference—AND OF SAVING LIVES LOST TO SUICIDE!

Gerald (Jerry) and Elsie Weyrauch, August 3, 2001

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