Colorado’s Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention: What’s Working

Dr. Lena Heilmann, Director of the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP), provided an overview of Colorado’s comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, including the programs OSP funds and leads; Colorado-specific suicide-related data and data systems; a deeper dive into the Colorado-National Collaborative and OSP’s emphasis on suicide-specific care; how OSP works to meet the needs of all Colorado communities, including priority populations that face unique challenges and barriers that can increase risk of suicide; how OSP funds its programs through braided fundings and federal grants; the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commission and collaborations with partners across the state through its five active workgroups covering the programs we run and fund through OSP; what a comprehensive approach is; what the CNC is; that we work to meet the needs of all Colorado communities, including priority populations; which federal grants we have and how we implement them; provide an overview of the Commission and workgroups; and show some Colorado-specific data.

About Lena Heilmann, PhD

Lena Heilmann (she/hers), PhD, MNM, is the Director of the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention (which is housed within CDPHE). The Office of Suicide Prevention’s mission is to serve as the lead entity for suicide prevention, intervention supports, and postvention efforts in Colorado, collaborating with communities statewide to reduce the number of suicide deaths and attempts. Lena leads a team of eleven people who are passionate about reducing the impact of suicide in Colorado. Lena leads suicide prevention responses to media inquiries, provides subject matter expertise to legislation, serves as the Co-Chair for the Suicide Prevention Commission, is accountable to meeting statutory mandates for the Office, and serves as PI on two SAMHSA grants: GLS Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Lena is fiercely committed to equity in the Office’s approach to comprehensive suicide prevention and had led various initiatives to center community voice, lived experience, and to address disparities impacting Coloradans.

Lena’s passion for this work comes directly from her lived experience. In 2012, Lena lost her only sister Danielle to suicide. Lena’s world and identity shattered with the loss of her soulmate sister. In order to survive this traumatic grief and to honor her sister, Lena decided to leave her career as a German and Gender/Women’s Studies professor and turned to a life of suicide prevention. She connected with sibling suicide loss survivors and compiled a book-length collection of essays titled Still With Us: Voices of Sibling Suicide Loss Survivors, which the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) recognized by awarding Lena with the 2021 AAS Suicide Loss Survivor of the Year Award. Lena volunteers for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)’s Healing Conversations program.

About David A. Jobes Ph.D. ABPP

David Jobes, PhD, ABPP, is the founder of CAMS-care, LLC. He began his career in 1987 in the Counseling Center of the Catholic University of America, where he developed a suicide risk assessment tool for college students that evolved into CAMS. Dr. Jobes is now a Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of Clinical Training at Catholic; he has trained thousands of mental health professionals in the United States and abroad in evidence-based assessment and treatment of suicide risk and the use of CAMS.

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