Public Health and Suicide Systems of Care
The Virginia Department of Health’s (VDH) Suicide Systems of Care (SSC) unit works to shape environments that connect, support, and deliver resources to make suicide as preventable as possible. This includes addressing health related outcomes before they occur and can include a variety of strategies across a broad range of health topics. For example, vaccines are used to help reduce the spread and severity of disease before people get sick. This is a common example of primary prevention.
In suicide prevention, one strategy often employed includes Community Helper training (formerly gatekeeper training). Community helper training educates the public about things they can do to reduce suicide deaths including, recognizing potential warning signs, asking people directly about whether or not they want to die, and helping them get professional support through a private provider or one of Virginia’s 40 Community Services Boards (CSBs).
In addition to training, the SSCP supports a number of organizations towards establishing a robust and connected network of resources for community members to access as needed. This includes:
The Campus Suicide Prevention Center of Virginia (CSPCV)
Our mission is to equip Virginia’s higher education communities to address suicide risk proactively and responsively. We support campuses by promoting well-being and providing training, consultation, opportunities for collaboration, and planning for suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.
The Virginia Zero Suicide Hub is a technical assistance hub providing services to all Virginia hospital and behavioral health systems on the implementation of the Zero Suicide Framework. The Zero Suicide Framework is a collection of evidence-based practices that, when adopted to fidelity, provide for the opportunity to improve suicide care within these systems. The goal of the hub is to ensure all community members have access to best practice suicide care.