Program Increases Suicide Prevention Efforts
Posted on July 16, 2024
Under the leadership of Anita Brown-Graham ’91 (JD), “Our State, Our Wellbeing” brought together two UNC initiatives that focused on suicide prevention. (Photo: UNC)
A recently completed yearlong initiative to reduce suicide in North Carolina involved working with officials in 15 counties to introduce new training, inform the public on prevention efforts and make mental health resources more accessible.
Under the leadership of Anita Brown-Graham ’91 (JD), “Our State, Our Wellbeing” brought together two UNC initiatives that focused on suicide prevention, Carolina Across 100, a program created to address mental health challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the University’s Suicide Prevention Institute.
In 2020, there were 1,436 suicide deaths in North Carolina, including 67 people between the ages of 11 to 18, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide, there were 45,979 suicide deaths that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The people of North Carolina are the inspiration for this program,” Brown-Graham, the Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government and director of the School of Government’s ncIMPACT Initiative, said in a statement provided by UNC Media Relations. “We surveyed them about continued challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic, and people in every one of our state’s counties pointed to mental health as an area they thought our campus could meaningfully support. We said ‘yes.’ ”
“Our State, Our Wellbeing” planned to work with 10 counties in the eastern and western parts of the state, but officials said 26 applied, Brown-Graham said.
The Camber Foundation, a North Carolina organization that works with communities to improve health and wellness, education and economic development, provided the initiative with more funding to work with an additional five counties. If the initiative could have raised more money, it would have worked with all 26 programs, Brown-Graham said in her statement.
“With such a strong group of diverse communities across the state, teams were able to share ideas, resources, and connections with one another,” she said in the statement. “The opportunity to learn from peers engaged in similar work is one of the most valuable parts of the program.”
The first step in the initiative was for counties to use data and visions to prevent suicide that would identify the challenges of suicide in the respective communities, Brown-Graham said.
“Once teams determined where they needed to focus their efforts, our programming focused on exposing them to evidence-based resources and strategies to support their work,” she wrote. “This included topics like safe messaging and communication around suicide, postvention, reducing access to lethal means of suicide including substances and firearms, gatekeeper trainings, improving access to care, and more. We also highlighted initiatives from the CDC at the federal level and NC DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) at the state level to help teams understand how their work fits into larger efforts to improve behavioral health and prevent suicide.”
Brown-Graham said the communities have shared data, hosted community events and trained hundreds of people to be able to identify those experiencing suicidality through programs such as Mental Health First Aid.
Especially important, individuals “sought to reduce stigma around conversations about suicide,” in part by distributing thousands of publications, flyers and social media posts seeking to normalize conversations about suicide, according to Brown-Graham.
— Cameron Hayes Fardy ’23
