Health advocates have been calling on the federal government to implement a national suicide strategy for years.
Create and implement a plan.
The US Air Force, which recognized as early as 20 years ago that suicide was becoming as great a threat to its soldiers as warfare, implemented a highly regarded comprehensive suicide prevention plan covering soldiers of every rank that led to a direct reduction in lives lost.
Governmental officials, epidemiologists, psychiatrists, environmental health workers, economists, meteorologists and community leaders should work together to design, develop and implement effective suicide prevention and control strategies through an integrated and systematic approach.
The Henry Ford Health System, a Detroit-based health care organization, found that suicide rates among its patients dropped by 75percentt in the first four years after implementing a new depression care program that includes suicide-specific education for its care providers.
The local health authorities will implement the suicide prevention measures in accordance with the intervention manual developed by the program committee of the study group.
Exploring the spatiotemporal association between socio-environmental variables and suicide may also provide a better understanding of suicide cases at a local level and offer area-specific information to plan and implement suicide prevention activities.
First, more details (eg, health and financial status, alcohol and drugs use, and family conflicts history) of suicide victims need to be acquired to help public health policymakers and health workers design and implement suicide control and prevention strategies targeting particular population groups (eg, male young adults) and areas (eg, indigenous communities).
There was a decrease in suicides by firearms during the study period especially after 1996 when a new firearm control law was implemented, while suicide by hanging continued to increase.
Some countries have implemented national suicide prevention strategies, in line with guidance from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
