Crisis Intercept Mapping Helps Communities Enhance Suicide Prevention Efforts
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December 2024
NORC analyzed data from 24 communities, identifying gaps in community-based suicide prevention and outlining solutions.
The Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families Technical Assistance (SMVF TA) Center engages communities across the country in Crisis Intercept Mapping to strengthen their delivery of evidence-based suicide prevention policies and practices. Each community selects its own 10- to 16-person team, including a mix of municipal or county officials, veterans’ services officers, health officials, crisis center leaders, health care providers, law enforcement, first responders, school districts, religious organizations, and social services organizations.
“Crisis Intercept Mapping brings all the important players in a community to the table so that when gaps in crisis care are identified, they can develop an action plan to address them,” said Brett Harris, senior research scientist in Public Health at NORC.
“Crisis Intercept Mapping empowers communities to identify challenges and devise solutions.”
NORC’s analysis finds gaps in community-based crisis care.
To provide a nationwide snapshot of common gaps and potential solutions, NORC, in partnership with Policy Research Associates and the SMVF TA Center, analyzed data from 24 participating communities. The communities represented a cross-section of rural and urban areas from different parts of the country. Despite the participants’ geographic and demographic diversity, the analysis found shared challenges.
Common challenges included consistent gaps in routine screening for suicide risk using validated tools and in the development of suicide-specific safety plans for people at risk. Many communities also reported that their health systems and clinics had difficulty transitioning patients between systems of care and monitoring their progress and outcomes.
Often, referral organizations fell short on making the necessary follow-up calls to initiate outpatient care, leaving people in crisis to make the calls themselves or go without care. In some cases, privacy policies hampered communication between organizations.
Closing gaps in crisis care takes training and coordination.
The project also identified steps communities can take to address these challenges. For example, Harris emphasized the importance of developing organizational protocols for screening and intervention and training staff on using standardized suicide risk screening tools and other evidence-based practices. Harris also highlighted the importance of using suicide-specific safety planning tools rather than more general crisis plans, educating at-risk individuals and their families about what comes next, and developing referral networks to help connect individuals with agencies or organizations that specialize in meeting their needs.
The findings have implications for 988.
The findings of this analysis have important implications for the 988 Lifeline. With the increased use of 988, there is a need for more community-based care. Crisis Intercept Mapping teams identified several focus areas and many promising and actionable solutions for increasing access.
“There has been a lot of focus on the 988 Lifeline over the last few years,” Harris said. “Of course, increased use of 988 means an increased demand for referrals to community-based care. We have to make sure communities are prepared to meet this demand. Crisis Intercept Mapping empowers communities to identify challenges and devise solutions.”
This article is from our flagship newsletter, NORC Now. NORC Now keeps you informed of the full breadth of NORC’s work, the questions we help our clients answer, and the issues we help them address.
