Zero Suicide – Outcomes and Opportunities

Wednesday, May 29th | 3 pm EDT / 2 pm CDT / 1 pm MDT / 12 pm PDT
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The Zero Suicide model was launched in 2012 as part of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Consistent with the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, Zero Suicide called for improved suicide identification and care in health care systems and promoted use of evidence-based practices by health care providers. Seven core elements comprise the model: “Lead”, “Train”, and “Improve” are the structural components embedded throughout the system and necessary for change success, fidelity, and continuous quality improvement. “Identify”, “Engage”, “Treat”, and “Transition” are clinical components of the model and define the care patients should receive. Despite evidence supporting each component, use of the full model within systems of care varies.
Over 38% of individuals have made a healthcare visit (e.g., primary care, emergency department, specialty care, etc.) within the week before their suicide attempt and 95% have had a healthcare visit within the preceding year. While this varies across race and ethnicity, these are clearly missed opportunities to identify and care for people at risk for suicide.
Seeing suicide as a never event forces the organization to use best practices, apply continuous quality improvement, and emphasize reducing errors while holding the system to account, not the individual. The clinical science of treating suicidality has evolved such that we now have several proven suicide-specific treatments with additional promising treatments in development. However, graduate programs, professional certification, and continuing education rarely focus on suicide-specific treatments as a competency for graduation or licensure and clinicians report a lack of comfort, confidence, and skill in delivering suicide care.
The Zero Suicide approach has demonstrated notable reductions in suicide and suicide behaviors as well as improvements to using evidenced-based practices. This webinar will describe the Zero Suicide model, discuss challenges, disparities, and opportunities regarding uptake of the unique components of the model, and share how organizations can get started on their Zero Suicide implementation efforts.

Julie Goldstein Grumet, PhD

Julie is Vice President for Suicide Prevention Strategy and the Director of the Zero Suicide Institute at the Education Development Center. She provides strategic direction to health care systems to improve the identification and treatment for people at risk for suicide. She has collaborated on numerous grants and publications about systems-based approaches to suicide prevention. Julie’s primary responsibility is to advance the development, dissemination, and effective implementation of comprehensive suicide care practices in various settings. She has expertise in behavioral health transformation, state and local community suicide prevention, quality improvement, and the use of evidence-based practices for suicide care in clinical settings. Julie has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University and lives in Silver Spring, MD.

About David A. Jobes, PhD, 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 an evidence-based treatment, CAMS, recognized by The Joint Commission, Zero Suicide, and the CDC. A 2021 meta-analysis of 30 years of research shows that CAMS is a “Well Supported” intervention for reducing suicidal ideation per CDC criteria. Dr. Jobes is 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.