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Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Rural Primary Care

Suicidal patients often visit their primary care providers within days or weeks of taking their lives. This fact suggests the primary care setting would present an excellent opportunity for suicide prevention. However, another fact is that rural primary care providers face significant challenges to suicide prevention, such as the demands of a fast paced practice, poor access to mental health services and stigma.  Stigma and discrimination regarding mental health is pervasive in many rural areas and efforts to treat behavioral health problems may not be supported.

Primary Care Tool Kit Image Click for Getting Started Click for Educating Clinicans and Office Staff Click for Developing Mental Health Partnerships Click for Patient Management Tools Click for Patient Education Tools Click for Other Resources This Web-based Toolkit contains information and tools to implement state of the art suicide prevention practices and overcome the significant hurdles this life-saving work faces in primary care practices. The Toolkit offers the support necessary to establish the primary care provider as one member of a team, fully equipped to reduce suicide risk among their patients. For instance, the tools will help you engage your patients and those around them in managing their own suicide risk. You’ll find tools for developing partnerships with mental health providers—regardless of how far away they may be—and a guide to developing telemental health services, a promising solution for many rural areas. There are also posters for display in your office, schools, and churches, and wallet cards listing warning signs for suicide and the number of the national crisis line.

The Toolkit is a collaborative project of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education (WICHE), Mental Health Program.  Although the tools are designed with the rural practice in mind, most are quite suitable for use in non-rural settings, as well.

The materials offered through this website may be reproduced for use within your practice.  Further distribution without the express consent of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center is prohibited.

Order a Toolkit Now: Hard copies of the toolkit are available for $25.00 through WICHE Mental Health Program. For more information, please contact Tamara DeHay at tdehay@wiche.edu (preferred option) or 303-541-0254.