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About the Taskforce:
The North Carolina Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force, led by the Division of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch, developed Saving Tomorrows Today: The North Carolina Plan to Prevent Youth Suicide. The plan was published in October 2004 and offers comprehensive strategies for preventing suicides of youth between 10 and 24 years of age. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in this age group.
Core Task Force representatives include staff from the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch and the Children and Youth Branch in the Division of Public Health, Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP), Division of Mental Health, Department of Administration’s Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office, the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, the Attorney General’s Child Victim Services, the Department of Public Instruction’s Healthy Schools program and School Nurse services and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work. Consultation is frequently received from LivingWorks USA (suicide intervention skills training program), Holly Hill Hospital, Mental Health in Schools Project and REAL Crisis Center (the only state certified and networked provider for the national suicide hotline).
The youth suicide prevention plan prioritizes six goals for the state:
- Promote awareness that suicide is a public health problem that is preventable.
- Develop and implement community-based suicide prevention programs.
- Promote efforts to reduce access to lethal means of self harm.
- Implement training for recognition of at-risk behavior and delivery of effective treatment.
- Improve access to and community linkages with mental and substance abuse services.
- Improve and expand surveillance systems
The task force responds to community and agency requests for education/awareness presentations, gatekeeper training, data, program networking and resource questions.
2009 Youth Suicide Prevention RFA:
The current funding cycle is closed. The RFA is provided only as a reference.
Suicide Prevention and Data:
- General suicide prevention information
- Suicide data from the N.C. Injury and Violence Prevention Branch Surveillance Unit
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