About
CDC's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program (CSP) funds 24 programs to implement and evaluate a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention, with attention to populations that have higher suicide rates compared to other populations in the jurisdiction. CSP's goal is to reduce suicide and suicide attempts among these populations by 10% over five years. Funded recipients are using data-driven decision-making to implement and evaluate the best available evidence to meet this ambitious goal.
Program profiles
The CSP Program Profiles show how funded programs are working to implement and evaluate a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention. A comprehensive approach uses suicide prevention strategies from CDC's Suicide Prevention Resource for Action. The seven strategies in the Prevention Resource help communities and states focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent suicide, and they are implemented on three levels:
- Community-based interventions
- Healthcare-based interventions
- Upstream interventions
NEW 2023 Comprehensive Suicide Prevention recipients
Bexar County Hospital District (Texas)
Illinois Department of Health
Ohio Department of Health
Puerto Rico Department of Health
Rhode Island Department of Health
University of Nebraska
Funding amount:
- FY20: $900,000
- FY21: $900,000
- FY22: $1,033,000
- FY23: $1,033,000
Focus populations: 13 counties in California with high rates of suicide and emergency department visits for self-harm
Website: CDPH Suicide Prevention Program
Examples of California's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Promoting safe storage practices for both firearms and medications by:
- Training healthcare and behavioral healthcare providers and giving them messaging on safe storage to integrate suicide prevention into their practices
- Implementing the Pharmacists as Gatekeepers project to train pharmacists in suicide prevention practices, including safe storage of medications
- Providing Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) trainings to communities
- Disseminating educational materials to law enforcement and first responders to promote help-seeking behavior, including education on safe storage
- Sharing educational materials and campaigns that educate partners and community members about existing state policies around safe storage
- Training healthcare and behavioral healthcare providers and giving them messaging on safe storage to integrate suicide prevention into their practices
- Providing gatekeeper training to health and mental health providers, as well as pharmacists, to conduct suicide risk assessments that screen for and detect suicide risk and help connect people to services
- Promoting and advancing the implementation and use of telemental health in California to reduce social isolation and increase access to services
Funding amount:
- FY20: $901,139
- FY21: $901,139
- FY22: $901,139
- FY23: $901,139
Focus populations: Six counties (Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson) in Colorado with high counts and/or rates of suicide. Within these six counties additional priority populations include: Youth and young adults (0–24 years), middle-aged men (25–64 years), older adults (65+ years), veterans and military-involved families, LGBTQ+, BIPOC communities, people with disabilities, people working in high-risk industries (construction, agriculture and ranching, oil and gas, and emergency responders), and faith communities.
Website: Colorado-National Collaborative
Examples of Colorado's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Partnering with counties and local organizations to conduct community events that foster and promote connectedness.
- Strengthening postvention (activities that reduce suicide risk and promote healing after a suicide death for survivors of suicide) by coordinating resources and collaboration across counties to implement strategies—such as developing written policies for postvention response and training on responsible media messaging—that help support survivors of suicide loss and survivors of suicide attempts.
- Providing gatekeeper training to organizations that serve older adults to enhance opportunities for older adult suicide prevention.
- Promoting connectedness by coordinating events to connect older adults with social and emotional resources.
- Providing gatekeeper trainings (COMET) in rural and agriculture communities, which supplemented standard gatekeeper training based on the communities' unique characteristics.
- Promoting connectedness among LGBTQ+ individuals by supporting public community events inclusive of LGBTQ+ identities, providing suicide prevention awareness training to LGBTQ+ serving organizations, and establishing or promoting Gay-Straight Alliances within schools.
- Partnering with local leaders, government agencies, and other community groups to conduct community action planning focused on supporting economic stability initiatives, such as food security, affordable housing and transportation.
- Promoting safe storage of lethal means for veterans, by providing firearm safe storage among rural males.
Funding amount:
- FY20: $700,000
- FY21: $700,000
- FY22: $700,000
- FY23: $700,000
Focus populations: Youth and young adults (10–24 years), middle-aged adults (35–64 years), and older adults (65+ years)
Website: Connecticut Suicide and Self-Inflicted Injury Prevention Program
Examples of Connecticut's CSP-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Helping to reduce access to lethal means by:
- Promoting safe storage of firearms, prescriptions, and over-the-counter medications
- Expanding access to firearm trigger locks
- Intervening at suicide hotspots by posting suicide prevention signage in high-risk locations throughout the state (such as railroad platforms, bridges, highway overpasses, parking garages, state/local parks, and commuter lots)
- Implementing Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training and safety planning at inpatient and outpatient healthcare facilities
- Promoting safe storage of firearms, prescriptions, and over-the-counter medications
- Reducing the stigma of help-seeking by implementing a mental health promotion and substance use prevention awareness campaign for people working in high-risk occupations, including law enforcement, physicians, dentists, corrections staff, and military (active and veteran)
- Providing postvention (activities which reduce risk and promote healing after a suicide death) grief and loss support and resources for suicide loss survivors
- Increasing awareness of mental health resources and services on college and university campuses and for military recruits at the Air and Army National Guard
- Empowering peers to be gatekeepers by understanding suicide warning signs and how to get help
- Empowering peers to be gatekeepers by understanding suicide warning signs and how to get help
- Supporting mental health and wellness for youth by promoting Gizmo's Pawesome Guide to Mental Health—an evidence-based program that teaches youth in grades 3–5 how to take care of their mental health, encourages self-identification of warnings signs, and teaches coping strategies to help reduce risk
- Promoting the implementation of suicide risk screening and Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) gatekeeper training in healthcare and behavioral health systems
Funding amount:
- FY22: $974,000
- FY23: $974,000
Focus populations: Youth and military personnel
Website: Florida Department of Health
Examples of Florida's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Development of a Suicide Prevention Training Series that includes "Living Works Safe Talk" and "Watch Stander" delivered by a military peer organization in counties with the largest military population.
- Training staff in the "Question, Persuade, Refer" (QPR) gatekeeper training to support youth in school and other community locations with youth at risk such as rape crisis centers, neighborhood centers, and Department of Juvenile Justice.
Funding amount:
- FY22: $871,730
- FY23: $871,730
Focus populations: Veterans and first responders, and Black Youth (10-24 years) in Clayton County
Website: Georgia Department of Public Health
Examples of Georgia's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Providing gatekeeper training to address suicidality and stigma associated with help-seeking among veterans and first responders.
- Collaborating with partners to develop safe messaging and promote existing resources that facilitate suicide prevention efforts.
- Supporting ED CALM trainings for clinicians and professionals within the hospital system and Veteran Administration facilities.
- Offering yearly train-the-trainer sessions to ensure hospital staff are kept up to date with surveillance data and emerging issues.
- Promoting community connectedness through Sources of Strength (SoS), an evidence-based suicide prevention program that enhances protective factors at schools.
- Strengthening access and delivery of suicide care by performing an assessment on the current inventory of services and expanding available telemedicine and suicide prevention services.
Funding amount:
- FY21: $651,000
- FY22: $784,000
- FY23: $784,000
Focus populations: Youth (10–19 years), veterans, and service members.
Website: Louisiana Injury & Violence Prevention Program
Examples of Louisiana's CSP-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Partnering with the Family Tree to provide in-person and virtual Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) gatekeeper trainings to youth and youth-serving organizations, and disseminating information on youth suicide prevention services and behavioral health resources to training participants
- Partnering with the National Suicidology Training Center (NSTC) to:
- Train healthcare providers working with service members, veterans, and youth, focusing on safety planning, reducing access to lethal means, and safe storage practices for firearms and medications
- Train peers to facilitate peer support groups, focusing on topics including supporting those experiencing suicidal thinking and coping with suicide bereavement
- Train healthcare providers working with service members, veterans, and youth, focusing on safety planning, reducing access to lethal means, and safe storage practices for firearms and medications
- Partnering with Beacon Community Connections to work with hospitals, law enforcement, and hospital intake specialists to provide care coordination services (such as follow-up services and resources) to youth who visited the emergency department or were admitted to a hospital due to suicidal ideation or attempt
- Partnering with Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge to provide peer support services to veterans and service members with a focus on strengthening their household security by connecting them to financial supports and benefit programs
Funding amount:
- FY21: $849,000
- FY22: $982,000
- FY23: $982,000
Focus populations: Rural residents, adults (45+ years) and LGBTQIA+ youth (11–24 years)
Website: Maine Suicide Prevention Program
Examples of Maine's CSP-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Maine is providing gatekeeper training to individuals (such as home health aides, physical and occupational therapists, and visiting nurses) and nursing and rehabilitation organizations that serve vulnerable populations (adults 45+ years and those living in rural areas) to help identify those at risk for suicide and refer them to care
- Implementing Sources of Strength (SOS) (a program that aims to prevent suicide by increasing help-seeking behaviors and promoting connections between peers and caring adults) interventions in partnership with NAMI Maine to enhance resiliency among LGBTQIA+ youth in school and out-of-school settings
- Collaborating with NAMI Maine to provide SOS training to adult advisors and peer leaders participating in LGBTQIA+ youth-serving organizations
- Collaborating with NAMI Maine to provide SOS training to adult advisors and peer leaders participating in LGBTQIA+ youth-serving organizations
- Expanding postvention (activities which reduce risk and promote healing after a suicide death) to respond to suicides among adults living in rural areas by increasing awareness of and providing access to mental health services and bereavement support after a suicide
- Partnering with the Primary Care Association to implement the Zero Suicide model (a framework for system-wide transformation of healthcare settings toward safer suicide care) in rurally-located community health centers
- Providing community health centers with training and capacity-building for suicide-safer care, including risk screening and assessment, safety planning, evidence-based treatment, and ongoing care management
- Providing community health centers with training and capacity-building for suicide-safer care, including risk screening and assessment, safety planning, evidence-based treatment, and ongoing care management
- Partnering with schools and community behavioral health providers to reduce provider shortages in rural areas by supporting the implementation and availability of tele-behavioral health programs facilitated by community health worker in schools across the state
Funding amount:
- FY20: $650,000
- FY21: $650,000
- FY22: $650,000
- FY23: $650,000
Focus populations: Men of working age (25–64 years) and in certain occupations (construction and fishery), Hispanic/Latinx men, youth and young adults (10–24 years), and military/veterans
Website: Massachusetts Suicide Prevention Program
Examples of Massachusetts' Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Implementing the Signs of Suicide (SOS) curriculum, a suicide prevention program that educates students about the relationship between suicide and depression. This program aims to prevent suicide by increasing help-seeking behaviors and promoting connections between peers and caring adults in vocational and technical high schools to reach students who are training for occupations that are at higher risk for suicide.
- Developing a marketing campaign to help men self-identify mental health issues and gain confidence in seeking support for mental health
- Increasing the diversity and inclusivity of the MassMen website—which aims to prevent suicidality among Massachusetts men by promoting their personal mental health and well-being—to reach men of color and gender and sexual minorities
- Increasing the diversity and inclusivity of the MassMen website—which aims to prevent suicidality among Massachusetts men by promoting their personal mental health and well-being—to reach men of color and gender and sexual minorities
- Providing Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) gatekeeper training to:
- MassHire Career Centers, which provide jobseekers with career guidance and referrals to jobs and training
- Community behavioral health providers and clinicians in communities with high Hispanic/Latinx populations, as well as those serving youth or serving men in occupations at higher risk for suicide
- MassHire Career Centers, which provide jobseekers with career guidance and referrals to jobs and training
- Translating and providing QPR and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) gatekeeper trainings in Spanish to community providers and clients in communities with strong Hispanic/Latinx populations
- Building resiliency and problem-solving skills in Hispanic/Latinx youth by training elementary school teachers and counselors on how to implement the Good Behavior Game (a classroom management game that aims to reduce aggressive, disruptive classroom behavior, which is a shared risk factor for later problems such as suicidal ideation and behavior)
Funding amount:
- FY20: $870,000
- FY21: $870,000
- FY22: $1,003,000
- FY23: $1,002,187
Focus populations: Males 25+ years
Website: Michigan Suicide Prevention
Examples of Michigan's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Reducing access to lethal means among people at risk by distributing and promoting gun locks and safe storage messages at gatekeeper trainings
- Promoting, sponsoring, and hosting gatekeeper trainings, such as Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, to community gatekeepers statewide, including:
- Working with the Michigan Department of Corrections to implement policies related to suicide prevention, and facilitate gatekeeper trainings among mental and physical health providers to improve response to the corrections population as well as correctional staff who have expressed suicidal ideation
- Increasing the capacity to host gatekeeper trainings by hosting "training for trainers" to create a greater number of available trainers statewide
- Working with the Michigan Department of Corrections to implement policies related to suicide prevention, and facilitate gatekeeper trainings among mental and physical health providers to improve response to the corrections population as well as correctional staff who have expressed suicidal ideation
- Reducing access to lethal means among people at risk by distributing and promoting gun locks and safe storage messages at gatekeeper trainings
- Launching and promoting Man Therapy Michigan, a website that serves as a mental health and suicide prevention intervention for working age adult men and provides information and resources for mental health, coping, resilience, and connection to services
- Developing and disseminating safe messaging standards for reporting on suicide as well as safe messaging for social media, and working with mass communications departments at universities statewide to ensure safe messaging guidelines are taught and applied
- Reducing provider shortages by developing and disseminating a telemental health toolkit that providers can use statewide to provide quality suicide care on virtual platforms for potential increases in access and use of telemental health services
The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc is a private, not-for-profit membership corporation organized in 1952, for the purpose of assisting and enhancing the research and training objectives of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene and its component agencies; the Office of Mental Health, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports.
Funding amount:
- FY22: $973,053
- FY23: $973,053
Focus populations: Working aged men (25-64), adolescent girls (12-17)
Website: Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.
Examples of Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Partnering with juvenile justice stakeholders, county mental health organizations, and youth probation departments to expand e-Connect. E-Connect allows probation staff to provide tablets to youth to complete a self-administered evidence-based screen, quickly identifying those at risk for suicide and connecting them with needed services.
- Providing professional development trainings and workshops to school staff including Creating Suicide Safety in Schools, Helping Students at Risk for Suicide, Suicide Safety for Teachers & School Staff, and school programming including Invisible Mentoring and Up to Me program.
- Increasing access to the Crisis Text Line (CTL) for distressed youth by tailoring campaigns through the use of social media, public announcements, posting CTL posters and stickers in hallways, bathrooms, on back of student IDs, etc.
Read Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.'s CSP success stories
Funding amount:
- FY20: $870,000
- FY21: $870,000
- FY22: $1,003,000
- FY23: $1,003,000
Focus populations: Males, rural counties, veterans, and LGBTQ+ youth (10–18 years)
Website: NCDHHS Suicide Prevention
Examples of North Carolina's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Planning and hosting the CSP Injury Free NC Academy, a 2-day event that teaches community-based partners to recognize and appropriately respond to suicidality in youth
- Conducting Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) gatekeeper trainings, in "Train-the-Trainer" events across North Carolina to expand the database of trainers in North Carolina
- Providing Faith, a gatekeeper training designed specifically for the faith community to equip faith leaders to recognize warning signs for suicide and make referrals to care
- Creating and maintaining an interactive, searchable online inventory of suicide prevention efforts across North Carolina
- Expanding the number of Firearm Safety Teams (FST), which consist of local partners who collaborate on safe storage education and strategies
- Developing online trainings to teach communities how to create their own FST
- Partnering with Appalachian State University and NC Department of Health and Human Services to publicly disseminate a map of safe storage locations across the state
- Developing online trainings to teach communities how to create their own FST
The North Carolina Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) team implemented Faith Leaders for Life (FLFL) training. This is a statewide suicide prevention initiative aimed at reducing mental health provider shortages in rural areas. The CSP partnered with LivingWorks Education USA to deliver their faith gatekeeper training. A CSP team member was also trained to administer the training with a North Carolina context to address concerns unique to rural North Carolina faith leaders.
Funding amount:
- FY22: $955,014
- FY23: $955,014
Focus populations: Rural residents, Veterans, and LGBTQ+ youth
Website: University of North Dakota
Examples of the University of North Dakota's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Reducing access to lethal means by distributing gun locks and promoting safe storage.
- Providing gatekeeper training in schools and community-based settings.
- Promoting protective factors, resilience, trusting relationships, and help-seeking in schools by providing Sources of Strength training and engaging peer leaders with adult advisors and students.
- Implementing Zero Suicide in primary care and hospital settings to identify and treat those at risk with evidence-based suicide care.
- Expanding access to telemental health to address provider shortages in rural areas.
Funding amount:
- FY22: $855,000
- FY23: $855,000
Focus populations: Rural residents, rural residents aged 55 and older, and veterans
Website: Oregon Health Authority
Examples of Oregon's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Partnering with state & local law enforcement agencies to develop suicide safer Extreme Risk Protection Orders
- Providing culturally adapted QPR and ASIST trainings for rural older firearm owners, veterans, certified older adult peer specialists, members of assisted living communities and caregivers.
- Expanding partnerships with organizations that serve rural residents and veterans (Shooting Sports Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Foreign Legion, Elks, gun clubs, senior centers, churches, assisted living facilities) to recruit trainees.
- Providing PEARLS Training to behavior health specialist in senior centers
Funding amount:
- FY20: $598,861
- FY21: $700,000
- FY22: $833,000
- FY23: $700,000
Focus populations: Veterans in Northwest Pennsylvania (15 counties)
Website: The Resilient Veteran
Examples of University of Pittsburgh's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Developing firearm suicide prevention tools, campaigns, and trainings for firearm retailers and owners to identify individuals at risk for suicide and reduce access to lethal means among people at risk
- Planning gatekeeper trainings, such as Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), for healthcare providers, law enforcement, and community members to increase knowledge and awareness of suicide first aid
- Collaborating with a local nonprofit, Hold My Guns, to encourage local firearm retailers to provide offsite safe storage options
- Collaborating with community partners to distribute safe storage items including gun locks and prescription lock boxes
- Promoting and hosting community greening initiatives and local engagement activities to reduce social isolation and promote connectedness
- Partnering with primary care and emergency department settings to implement Zero Suicide (a framework for system-wide transformation of healthcare settings toward safer suicide care) by screening, treating, and referring patients to treatment and providing sustained follow-up care
- Training and educating healthcare providers on using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), an evidence-based fast and effective suicide screening tool
- Training healthcare providers in primary care and emergency department settings on brief interventions, referral to treatment using warm handoffs, and active follow-up contacts
- Training and educating healthcare providers on using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), an evidence-based fast and effective suicide screening tool
- Raising awareness and providing education on Pennsylvania's mental health parity laws and regulations to healthcare providers and community members
Funding amount:
- FY20: $750,000
- FY21: $750,000
- FY22: $883,000
- FY23: $883,000
Focus populations: All rural residents, males in rural areas, and rural residents ages 15–64 years
Website: Tennessee Suicide Prevention
Examples of Tennessee's Comprehensive Suicide Program (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Identifying and supporting people at risk for suicide by increasing education through gatekeeper training (including Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), and Be The One (BTO) in organizations including behavioral health organizations, high schools and higher education institutions, detention centers, and occupational therapy centers
- Expanding gatekeeper training to healthcare and behavioral healthcare providers in rural areas to reach rural residents, including males and people ages 15–64 years
- Expanding gatekeeper training to healthcare and behavioral healthcare providers in rural areas to reach rural residents, including males and people ages 15–64 years
- Providing safer suicide care through systems change by implementing the Zero Suicide model (a framework for system-wide transformation of healthcare settings toward safer suicide care) in healthcare and behavioral healthcare agencies
- Improving access to mental healthcare and resources by reducing provider shortages in underserved rural areas through telemental health training to providers
- Expanding health insurance to cover more mental health conditions by teaching people about laws that require equal coverage for mental and physical health.
- Teaching coping and problem-solving skills by increasing social-emotional learning programs such as the Sources of Strength (a classroom management game that aims to reduce aggressive, disruptive classroom behavior, which is a shared risk factor for later problems such as suicidal ideation and behavior) in K-2 classrooms
Funding amount:
- FY20: $760,000
- FY21: $760,000
- FY22: $893,000
- FY23: $893,000
Focus populations: Vermont residents (15–64 years), people with a disability, LGBTQ people, males, and rural residents
Website: FacingSuicideVT.com
Examples of Vermont's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded activities:
- Working with hospitals and emergency departments to deliver emergency department Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) and to incorporate CALM into the list of required training for providers
- Disseminating safe reporting and messaging about suicide guidelines to media partners
- Providing gatekeeper trainings to community partners, including Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), Umatter, and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)
- Developing peer support networks among at-risk populations, including first responders, farmers, and suicide loss survivors
- Expanding Zero Suicide (a framework for system-wide transformation of healthcare settings toward safer suicide care) across Vermont primary care practices and hospital emergency departments
- Organizing and hosting trainings to increase mental health providers' abilities to provide safer suicide care via telemental health
- Developing and delivering safe storage training to providers and community members to promote safe storage, including firearm safe storage among rural males, and medication safe storage focused on youth and their families
- Collaborating with Vermont Poison Control Center to develop the Self-Poisoning Prevention Toolkit for Healthcare Providers focusing on youth and their families for use in medical care settings, including emergency departments
- Collaborating with Vermont Poison Control Center to develop the Self-Poisoning Prevention Toolkit for Healthcare Providers focusing on youth and their families for use in medical care settings, including emergency departments
- Implementing a public health campaign to raise awareness, reduce the stigma associated with suicide, and increase help-seeking behavior among Vermonters experiencing suicidality
Funding amount:
- FY22: $868,730
- FY23: $868,730
Focus populations: Adolescent females aged 10-19, Rural males aged 25 and older
Website: Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Examples of Wisconsin's Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP)-funded suicide prevention activities:
- Implementing the PRISM Program, a mental wellness resource for LGBTQ+ youth. Offering free one-on-one support through a warmline and support groups online and in-person.
- Implementing the Gun Shop Project and providing safe storage.
- Implementing the LOSS (Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors) team support model.
- Partnering with Sources of Strength (SOS) to implement SOS in Wisconsin schools.
- Collaborating with Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) America to expand CALM capacity and provide trainings to support integration of CALM practices into Wisconsin healthcare system practice, policy, and procedures.
- Supporting the development and delivery of digital literacy programming for rural men ages 25 and older. Digital literacy refers to a person's ability to find, assess, use, and communicate information using information technologies and the internet.
- Increasing computer access for telemental health care in rural communities.