Because of our rising suicide rate, the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, called mental health the “defining health crisis of our time.” Despite many countries having had suicide prevention strategies for decades, we see a general lack of investment with suicide rates increasing in many settings and suicide-related inequities. The majority of people who die by suicide were not engaged in mental health services in the months before their deaths. This indicates the need to also advance a public health approach to suicide rather than primarily relying on the crisis and mental health systems for suicide prevention. Suicide prevention approaches must be engaging, culturally relevant and meet people where they are by spanning multiple community service sectors (e.g., schools, colleges/universities, healthcare, justice system, child welfare, etc.) and social media. The epidemiology of suicide, risk factors for suicide, the national context, and suicide research evidence are shifting which could point to possible new directions for suicide prevention.
About Holly Wilcox Ph.D.
Dr. Holly Wilcox is founder and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Suicide Prevention. She is also a Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with joint appointments in the Department of Health Policy and Management as well as the schools of medicine and education. Holly uses research to advance public health approaches to suicide prevention, including policies, early intervention, and chain of care approaches. Holly serves as President of the International Academy of Suicide Research (IASR), on the national board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and as a consultant on suicide prevention for the WHO.
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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