Health and behavioral health care providers are not trained in suicide care.

Suicide is a significant public health problem that can be prevented with targeted education and intervention. Because a large proportion of suicide decedents receive health care in the year and month prior to their deaths, the provision of suicide care in health settings plays a critical role in preventing suicide. Unfortunately, many health and behavioral health care professionals have not received training and are not equipped to deliver evidence-based suicide care.

NORC developed suicide prevention trainings for health care and mental health care providers of LSF Health System in Florida.

Recognizing a need to jointly address substance use and suicide, NORC delivered a series of suicide prevention trainings for LSF Health System, one of seven behavioral health Managing Entities (ME) contracted by the Florida Department of Children and Families to manage the state-funded system of behavioral health care for people who face poverty and are without insurance. Our trainings built upon a previous substance use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) training series we conducted for LSF. The suicide prevention training series included an introduction to suicide as a public health problem, an integrated SBIRT and suicide care training and technical assistance session, and postvention for clinical providers.