Building sustainable infrastructure for youth suicide prevention in wisconsin - mental health america of wisconsin, in collaboration with wisconsin state agencies and statewide partners, will…

Building sustainable infrastructure for youth suicide prevention in wisconsin - mental health america of wisconsin, in collaboration with wisconsin state agencies and statewide partners, will develop a sustainable infrastructure to support youth suicide prevention in wisconsin among those aged 10-24. The project will expand peer-based school suicide prevention resources, enhance training for educators and youth-serving organizations, increase competency of clinical providers to support youth at-risk for suicide, and expand capacity for local and tribal health department to support navigation of resources for youth. The population to be served includes all youth residing in wisconsin aged 10-24. This represents approximately 1,140,000. Surveys collected by the wisconsin department of public instruction show an estimated 50% of high school students live with anxiety, and rates of mental illness among wisconsin populations are approximately 20%. Youth in wisconsin targeted by this project are 83.7% white, 10.3% black, 11.1% hispanic, 4.4% asian, and 1.6% american indian/native american. Two-thirds of english learners speak spanish, with hmong as the second-most common language at 15%. Suicide rates for the target population are highest among 18-24 year-olds. Rates of hospitalization and emergency department visits for self-injury are highest among 15-17 year-old females across all populations in wisconsin. Rates of hospitalization resulting from self-injury for all males is highest among those aged 18-24. Native american youth have highest rates of suicide death among 10-24 year-olds when viewing 5 year averages. The project will follow three specific strategies to achieve successful outcomes and interventions within the target population. The first strategy will increase capacity of wisconsin's resources to provide access to suicide prevention, including screening for those at-risk. This will be accomplished through developing fact sheets to educate providers on trends and resources, expanding access to peer-based suicide support within school settings, and increase the number of school staff receiving training in youth suicide prevention when entering the profession. At least 150 schools will expand their capacity to provide peer-based support by the end of the project. The second strategy will increase engagement of clinical service providers and local/tribal health departments (lthds) to implement evidence-based and promising practices related to suicide prevention. This will be accomplished through implementing zero suicide within youth serving organizations (ysos), expanding training opportunities for clinical providers, and engaging lthds in youth suicide prevention learning communities. At least 20 lthds will be engaged in learning communities annually, and 5 ysos will participate in zero suicide training. The third strategy will support a sustainable model of transition and navigation for youth at-risk for suicide. This will be accomplished by creating capacity for youth suicide prevention navigators at lthds, developing models to support students to transition back to school from treatment settings, and promote and share modules for youth suicide prevention and postvention across partners.