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Suicidal thoughts may be hidden inside:

  • an adolescent struggling with a life crisis
  • a war veteran suffering from PTSD or traumatic brain injury
  • a mid-life worker with depression and alcohol dependence
  • a lonely elder with a terminal illness
  • many other patient types you see every day

SPRC Home > Featured Resources > Primary Care Toolkit > Getting Started

Featured Resources

Primary Care Toolkit - 1) Getting Started

As a provider of primary care services you are in a unique position to prevent suicides among your patients. Research tells us that people who die by suicide are more likely to have seen their primary care provider shortly before their death than any other health care professional.

At any given time, between two and four percent of your patients are having thoughts of suicide. They may come to your exam rooms presenting with many different concerns, but the one they may not be telling you about could be the one that will kill them—unless you and your staff are prepared.

Quick Start Guide
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/quickstartguide.pdf
Start your suicide prevention journey by checking out the Quick Start Guide.  It will walk you step-by-step through the process of seamlessly integrating suicide prevention into your practice.

Office Protocol Development Guide
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/OfficeProtocolDevelopmentGuide.pdf
Your practice can soon have systems in place that will allow you to intervene effectively without significantly disrupting the flow of patients. After you have familiarized yourself with the entire toolkit, use the Office Protocol Development Guide to establish the roles and responsibilities, as well as the procedures you will follow when you find that a patient is suicidal. If everyone in the clinic knows what he or she is expected to do, the process will be smoother than you might expect.

Primary Care Suicide Prevention Model
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/Intervention_Scheme.pdf
This is a one-page overview of the suicide prevention model promoted by this Toolkit. It summarizes the actions needed in the preparatory phase, lists ongoing prevention activities for the clinic and presents a flow chart of the prescribed intervention for patients at heightened risk for suicide.

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.