National suicide prevention strategies – Progress and challenges.

Suicide and attempted suicide/self-harm (suicidal behavior) constitute a major global public health concern, with an estimated annual toll of 793,000 deaths worldwide and up to 20 times as many episodes (no accurate count is possible) of attempts (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). In order to address the complexity and magnitude of suicidal behavior, national governments have recognized the need to develop and implement suicide prevention strategies that adopt a sustained, coordinated, multisectoral approach, led by a health ministry, involving a range of governmental and nongovernmental agencies working in collaboration, both nationally and locally. These strategies should be grounded firmly in research evidence of approaches (interventions) that are likely to contribute significantly to the prevention of, and reduction in, suicidal behavior. In this editorial the authors discuss (1) what is is national suicide prevention strategy? (2) different pathways recommended for countries at different stages of economic development; (3) barriers to effective implementation of strategy; (4) what do we know about the outcomes of national suicide prevention strategies? and; (5) why has there been so little progress in evaluating national suicide prevention strategies as a whole? Taking into account the current state of the art with regard to the development, implementation, and evaluation of national suicide prevention strategies, the authors conclude by making recommendations to ...
Source: Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research