About Prevent Suicide Spokane Coalition
Our Mission
Our coalition is made up of professionals from behavior health, education, government, and the private sector, all with the common goal to reduce suicide attempts and rates in Spokane County.
About Us
The Prevent Suicide Spokane Coalition is a group of individuals and organizations working to reduce and prevent suicide in the Greater Spokane Area. Our mission is to prevent suicide in our region, promote community mental health and wellness, and share vital resources with members and the Spokane community at large.
Our Vision
By 2022, the Prevent Suicide Spokane Coalition will have a clear operational strategy from which they will have provided early investment in children and families, created a community invested towards connectedness, shifted community and cultural norms, improved the spectrum of care, decreased access to lethal means, and built compassionate and robust aftercare in order to reduce the suicide and attempted suicide rates in Spokane County.
Barriers We Face
Current, root cause barriers to reaching the vision are: perceptions of suicide, systemic structural issues within and between agencies, dis-unification within and among agencies, exclusion and “othering” of key stakeholders, political prioritizations not aligned with suicide prevention, fear of loss of “rights” overshadowing safety concerns, and avoidance of these tough issues.
Strategic Directions
Strategic Direction
1
Expanding Inclusion and Reach
Expanding Inclusion and Reach is addressing the health inequity in suicide prevention. It acknowledges that there are certain populations within our community that have higher rates of suicide attempts, and that different messages about suicide will have a greater impact with different audiences.
Strategies:
- Targeted Inclusion
Indicators:
- Decreased suicide and attempted suicide rates in marginalized and at-risk communities.
- Increased help-seeking among marginalized and at-risk communities.
Strategic Direction
2
Enhancing Community Competency Around Suicide Prevention
Enhancing Community Competency Around Suicide Prevention looks to break the stigma of suicide and strengthen the community’s ability to address suicide within their family, among their friends and neighbors.
Strategies:
- Outreach to a wide variety of groups and events for community education.
- De-stigma and community competency campaign.
- Community/communication hub of resources (“how to” training and education) for different audiences (schools, business, etc).
- Training in education-based systems.
Indicators:
- Percent of Spokane County community members who have supported someone in getting help before a suicide attempt.
- Percent of providers able to provide or connect to mental health services for their patients.
- Percent of people who have a positive or neutral attitude towards people who seek mental health services.
Strategic Direction
3
Strengthening the Safety Net
Strengthening the Safety Net focuses on providing the appropriate care for those in crisis. Components of the safety net include: education the community on how to access care for themselves or a loved one, restricting the means to commit suicide for those who have or are vulnerable to suicide ideation, and ensuring our care system is adequately supportive and responsive to those in crisis.
Strategies:
- Focus on systemic care, connecting people to resources, means reduction.
Indicators:
- Reduction in the number of secondary attempts.
- Survivors report having received resources after a loss.
- Ongoing, connected community for loss survivors.
- Decrease in suicide by firearm.