To be the driving force for suicide awareness, prevention and intervention for the lehigh valley by bolstering community efforts toward that goal and collaborating with local governments. - the…

To be the driving force for suicide awareness, prevention and intervention for the lehigh valley by bolstering community efforts toward that goal and collaborating with local governments. - the suicide prevention coalition is a backbone organization that provides support to agencies, and community programs to continue their positive approaches for suicide awareness, prevention, and intervention. The use of data is critical as IT informs our specific focus areas. Our area has seen an increase in young adult [ages 19 - 28] suicides. Black and hispanic deaths have increased 100% and 500% respectively. The 2021 pennsylvanian youth survey of lehigh county students indicate in the past 12 months: 37% of 10TH graders and 35% of 12TH graders felt depressed, 23% of 10TH graders & 20% of 12TH graders considered suicide, and 13% of 10TH graders & 10% of 12TH graders attempted suicide. Currently, 54.3% of lehigh county is between the ages of 18 and 64; this cohort has our highest rate of suicide by age group consistently since 2011. The coalition is founded on the collective impact model, and as such utilizing community passion is not only integral IT is what makes our coalition so successful. An informed and trained community will decrease stigma associated with mental illness and depression. Such a community will be ready to assist others promptly and accurately to decrease deaths. The coalition will engage in a four-prong approach for community-wide awareness, prevention, and intervention. Firstly, a comprehensive communication plan that includes a media campaign complete with website enhancements, coalition membership portal and a coordinated social media plan. Timely social media posts coordinated with the messaging on the website which has the capacity to log and request training and trainers. Members of the coalition and the action teams supported by the coalition will have login permission to access meeting notes and best practice information. The second prong establishes and launches a local outreach for suicide survivors [L.O. S. S.] team and the training required for launching the team. Such a team is a postvention effort to provide resources and information to families who have suffered a suicide loss. A coordinating training effort is the third prong. Training in mental health first aid, question persuade refer [QPR] and applied suicide intervention skills training [asist] will be available to the community. As well as "train the trainer" trainings for sustainability of our continued training for our community. The last prong is a speaker's bureau. A comprehensive web-based catalog will be available to the community to include speakers who have lived experience, as well as subject matter experts in suicide loss, awareness prevention and intervention. Individuals can address specific topics and are from specific populations: lgbtq+ , veterans, military, first responders, black, hispanic, seniors ,youth, males, females, attempt survivors and loss survivors. Providing presentations to community groups will further awareness and decrease stigma. IT is OK to not be OK. These four prongs will provide a blanket approach for suicide awareness and prevention in the lehigh valley. Such resources equip our citizens with best practice knowledge to respond appropriately when someone they know and care about needs assistance thereby reducing the death of despair that is suicide.