A Strategic Approach for Prioritizing Research and Action to Prevent Suicide

It is time to strategically apply science and accountability to the public health problem of preventable suicide. U.S. suicide rates have remained stable for decades. More than 36,000 individuals now die by suicide each year. A public health–based approach to quickly and substantially reduce suicides requires strategic deployment of existing evidence-based interventions, rapid development of new interventions, and measures to increase accountability for results. The purpose of this Open Forum is to galvanize researchers to further develop and consolidate knowledge needed to guide these actions. As researchers overcome data limitations and methodological challenges, they enable better prioritization of high-risk subgroups for targeted suicide prevention efforts, identification of effective interventions ready for deployment, estimation of the implementation impact of effective interventions in real-world settings, and assessment of time horizons for taking implementation to scale. This new knowledge will permit decision makers to take strategic action to reduce suicide and stakeholders to hold them accountable for results. More than 36,000 Americans die by suicide every year. Authors of the Open Forum call on researchers to strategically apply science to the public health problem of preventable suicide. “The key is in knowing whom to target, with which interventions, and in what order of priority,” the authors note. With this in mind, they outline a four-step conceptual approach to prioritizing research.