One Year's Experience with a Suicide Prevention Service

On the basis of a community need seen during the years it operated an information and referral service, Mental Health Association of Westchester County moved, with the help of the psychiatric division of a voluntary hospital and a private psychiatric hospital, to establish and operate a suicide prevention center. This paper presents the staff's experience during the first year of the service's operation—including problems with community and professional resistance—and offers suggestions as to essential ingredients of an effective service.