Coalition Needs for Community-Based Suicide Prevention

Group of volunteers hosting a meeting about their community in the North East of England. They are a diverse group and are all talking together, organising community events.

The nation’s first in-depth assessment of the needs and assets of suicide prevention coalitions

Client

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Dates

April 2024 – Present

Problem

Coalitions are the backbone of community-based suicide prevention, yet few resources exist to support their work.

Suicide is a significant public health concern, with rates increasing 32.7 percent over the past 20 years despite concerted prevention efforts. In 2024, the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) was updated to provide guidance on best suicide-prevention practices and strategies to maximize the impact of national, state, and local efforts. This update identified community-led coalitions as the backbone of community-based suicide prevention. However, few resources exist to support such coalitions and there is limited understanding of how they operate and the most effective ways to aid them.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) sought to better understand the composition, infrastructure, and needs of suicide prevention coalitions to help guide the development of tailored resources and ultimately advance NSSP’s goal of expanded community-based suicide prevention.

Solution

NORC conducted the first comprehensive assessment of suicide prevention coalitions.

The SPRC partnered with NORC to conduct a pioneering, in-depth nationwide assessment of the composition, infrastructure needs, and assets of suicide prevention coalitions. We began with an environmental scan to explore the landscape of existing suicide prevention coalitions, including:

Identifying state, regional, and local coalitions
Reviewing coalition websites for information on coalition structure, funding, leadership, membership, activities, and accomplishments
Reviewing peer-reviewed publications about suicide prevention coalitions
Identifying existing resources for coalition-building and community-led suicide prevention

Next, findings from our scan informed a series of 16 focus groups with 70 state suicide-prevention leads and coalition members.

Result

NORC’s findings will guide the development of tools and resources for suicide prevention coalitions.

Multiple themes emerged from our focus groups including alignment with national goals, opportunities and challenges around collaboration with states and territories, financial barriers to coalition capacity, challenges sustaining coalition membership, and training and networking needs. Our findings suggest that coalitions can help advance state, territorial, and national suicide prevention efforts, but they are under-resourced and would benefit from additional training, support, and engagement with their state/territorial suicide prevention office.