Policy and Legislation

Guided by the National Action Alliance Planning Group, this report reviews developments in the field of suicide prevention in the nine years since the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) was published. It identifies the areas of most important progress as well as the critical areas that have gone relatively unaddressed and also explores new issues or initiatives that have emerged to claim attention or offer solutions since the development of the NSSP in 2001. Its purpose is to inform discussions about future initiatives to achieve the ultimate public policy goal behind the NSSP: to reduce the morbidity and mortality of suicidal behaviors.

Lists state legislation passed during 2006-2009 requiring suicide prevention training for school personnel.

This article describes the problem of contagion and the ways that administrators can act to prevent it by establishing a crisis team, recognizing and monitoring at-risk students, and mobilizing community-wide responses.

This one-page fact sheet provides guidance to school board members on how they can ensure that policies and awareness training for staff can support suicide prevention in at-risk students as well as district-wide preparedness and response

The Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS), through contract with the UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration, formed a workgroup to make recommendations to ensure that OMHSAS and other health providers and agencies acted to reduce disparities in outcomes between GLBTQI individuals with a mental illness and the general population. The workgroup recommendations centered around the goals of ensuring that GLBTQI individuals with a mental illness were protected from mistreatment and offered clinically competent mental health care services in welcoming environments.

This companion* resource guide provides important considerations for service providers and policy makers, including an assessment of the barriers faced by individuals in the GLBTQI community who are seeking mental health care and practical strategies to address these obstacles. The information is based on both a growing body of literature on the topic and the focus groups conducted by the authors. *A Mental Health Recovery and Community Integration Guide for GLBTQI Individuals: What You Need to Know

In this narrated slide tutorial, Jackie Judd, vice president and senior adviser for communications at the Kaiser Family Foundation, provides information and guidance on how to effectively communicate with the media. She also provides suggestions for how to frame key messages for print, broadcast and radio interview settings as well as other policy audiences.