International Project on Suicide Prevention Strategies
Countries around the world, including the United States, have increasingly recognized suicide as a major public health problem and have initiated a national plan or strategy to reduce the number of people who die by suicide. Although many countries share similar aims and strategies in regards to suicide prevention, each country's plan has emerged largely independently, with no coordinating international leadership or standards. Neither has there been any systematic attempt to examine and compare national strategies, or to measure their effectiveness.
In September 2003, AFSP began a major project designed to fill these gaps, with a preliminary meeting of 13 representatives from several countries, who had gathered in Stockholm to attend the International Association of Suicide Prevention Congress. From this group, a comprehensive plan was launched to hold an International Workshop on National Suicide Prevention Strategies, with the long-term goal of identifying and encouraging effective suicide prevention efforts on a global level.
In August 2004, AFSP organized a workshop that was held in Salzburg, Austria. Hosted by the Salzburg Medical Seminars, this international workshop brought together 22 representatives of countries that have developed, or are currently developing, a national suicide prevention plan, including Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Also attending was a senior representative of the World Health Organization. The specific goals of the workshop were to examine the evidence pointing to the effectiveness of specific components in the various national plans, and to identify specific measurable outcomes for national suicide prevention interventions. Presentations and discussions were organized into eight panels:
Results of the workshop have been disseminated through an article published in the Oct. 26, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A follow-up meeting of the international experts was held in August 2007 in Dublin, Ireland, in conjunction with the biannual meeting of the International Association of Suicide Prevention. Read more...
The project is supported by a grant from Pfizer Inc.
