Dear Partners,

This month we are especially focused on raising awareness of suicide prevention practices and working with our federal, state, jurisdiction, academic and healthcare partners, among others, to make progress on eliminating child and adolescent suicide and self-harm. 

The CSN’s Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC) provides training and technical assistance to state and jurisdiction health departments on suicide and self-harm prevention. One piece of our work is to leverage the CSN Framework. The CSN Framework for Quality Improvement and Innovation in Child Safety, with accompanying methods, resources, and tools, gives states and jurisdictions practical tested means to respond to the current crisis in a thoughtful and nimble way. 

At the Safe States Alliance Conference last week, CSN presented on “Advancing Equity Through the Child Safety Learning Collaborative” and highlighted the progress Missouri has made in addressing suicide and self-harm prevention (SSHP). Supplementing the strong adolescent suicide prevention work occurring in the state, Missouri Department of Public Health is taking a quality improvement approach to develop and test a new mental health toolkit targeting parents and caregivers of youth who have been treated for suicidal ideation and/or attempted suicide.

We are pleased to share the below partner and CSN suicide prevention resources, along with other child safety research and events. Throughout this newsletter, you will continue to find resources from our CSN-A partners highlighted in purple.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Leonardo, PhD

Children’s Safety Network Director

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 3,000 children and adolescents ages 10-19 died by suicide in 2018. For that age group, the data shows that suicide is the 2^rd leading cause of death. The good news is that suicide is preventable. Learn more about suicide prevention in the resources below:

CSN resources:

·        Webinar: Preventing Suicide and Self-Harm Among Black Youth

·        Infographic: Injury Disparities: Suicides

·        Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Change Package

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) created a two-page resource Suicide Prevention Month: Ideas for Action to help anyone, anywhere get involved in Suicide Prevention Month in September.

Learn about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s National Suicide Prevention Week page has a calendar of upcoming events throughout September.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Child and Adolescent Injury and Violence Prevention Resource Centers Cooperative Agreement (U49MC28422) for $5,000,000 with 0 percent financed with non-governmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.