Assessment of Infrastructure Relating to Suicide Prevention

Abstract

A key aspect of addressing suicide prevention as a public health issue is focusing on population-level strengths and challenges. In recent years there has been an increased focus on treating suicide prevention as a public health problem that requires new approaches and ways of thinking about prevention. Effective population-based suicide prevention efforts rely on a wide and interwoven array of services, systems, partnerships, programs, and other elements. Suicide prevention work happens at many different levels of the systems involved. The underlying structures that enable these systems to function can be termed suicide prevention infrastructure. To date little attention has been paid to the issue of how to assess suicide prevention infrastructure, even though understanding infrastructure may be crucially important for understanding gaps in the systems that serve people at risk for suicide. The current chapter presents an overview of different conceptualizations of suicide prevention infrastructure followed by a summary of attempts to comprehensively assess state-level infrastructure. The development, implementation, and impacts of the Infrastructure Assessment are described. This tool and a follow-up version are proposed as filling an important niche not otherwise addressed in systems-level surveys aimed at understanding suicide prevention services.