Research, Practice, and Policy in Suicide Prevention: A Roundtable Discussion

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) is the public-private partnership advancing the US National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) by championing suicide prevention as a national priority, catalyzing efforts to implement high-priority objectives of the NSSP, and cultivating the resources needed to sustain progress.  Its vision is a nation free from the tragic experience of suicide.  Established in September 2010, the Action Alliance has made substantive progress: completing the revision of the NSSP;  developing a prioritized research agenda;  improving suicide data and surveillance;  transforming health care delivery systems; improving clinician training ; incorporating suicide prevention into health care reform; advancing suicide prevention for high-risk populations; and promoting suicide prevention in the workplace .

In its second year, the Action Alliance set a goal to save 20,000 lives in five years.   To achieve this reduced burden of suicide deaths, surveillance data and intervention research must guide strategy and approaches.   Using available surveillance data, the Research Prioritization Task Force (RTF) is estimating the number of individuals seen in settings (e.g., emergency department) prior to their attempt and deaths as a way of projecting the “burden of suicide” in different U.S. sectors.  The RTF then models ‘optimal’ outcomes of known interventions (e.g.,  published effect sizes) that could be implemented in those settings.   This results in estimates of burden and potential intervention impact for various suicide prevention approaches that could be considered by the Action Alliance and by private and public stakeholders.   It also highlights significant gaps in surveillance and limitations in evidence-based practice.  To date, the lack of information on moderators that could yield important intervention subgroup (e.g., age, comorbid conditions) effects is stark.  Moreover, research approaches and the modeling of broader prevention strategies that can reach individuals outside of care systems must also be considered.  

This panel will describe steps taken so far by the National Strategy Update Task Force and by the RTF to model potential intervention benefits, and seek audience feedback.   This panel will ask two stakeholders familiar with policy-- a representative of a large private health insurer; and a state legislative leader with state suicide related policy experience –to comment on the value of research in the policy development process.  They will discuss preferred ways to have data described (burden estimates; models of interventions; cost effectiveness) to their peers, as well as what additional research questions need to be addressed most urgently to inform future policy.