Section B: Proposed Approach

Section B: Proposed Approach

1. Goals and Objectives. The overall purpose of the project is to reduce the burden of suicide in Wisconsin by:

• Promoting the development of community based suicide prevention networks in 10 communities that are culturally sensitive and consumer inclusivethat work towards formally establishing a system by which agencies, organizations, and communities will identify and intervene reducing the burden of youth suicidal behavior and suicides within their communities;
• Disseminating lessons learned through regional sharing sessions, a toolkit, a listserve, and a statewide conference.

To accomplish this undertaking, the following goals and objectives will be accomplished. These goals and objectives are directly linked with those outlined in the WSPS.

Table 4b: Goals for Disseminating Lessons Learned

Concurrent with the grant activities, the SPI will also be undertaking a number of efforts to strengthen state and regional level infrastructure for promoting youth suicide prevention. These will include completing a survey of all county suicide prevention efforts, developing a plan to promote awareness of suicide as a public health problem, disseminating information about training and effective clinical practices, and developing a plan to obtain additional funding to support suicide prevention efforts.

The goals of the project are further identified in the logic model on the following page.

The proposed project will address all of the purposes described in Sec. I-2.1 of the RFA. Specifically it will:

• Support development and implementation of youth suicide prevention efforts in the various systems described (the emphasis in each site will be driven by the local assessment).
• The entities directly involved in this project are those public and private entities that were instrumental in development of the WSPS and implementation of the WSPS to date.
• The InjuryResearchCenter at the Medical College of Wisconsin will be a subcontractor to act as our local evaluator and serve on our oversight committee.
• The data analysis for the project will advance research, technical assistance and policy development and will support our longer term funding efforts by providing data that the State and local communities can use in seeking funding from other sources.
• The long-term goal of reducing youth suicide will allow the state to move towards its targets under Title V of the Social Security Act. As noted in Sec. A, 1. our 2002 youth suicide rate for 15-19 y/o was 10.5 and our target is 9.

The project is also clearly consistent with the WSPS in that it is locally driven but utilizes mentors and expert consultants to ensure that development of local plans are based on evidence-based and best practices. The selection process for sites will ensure that projects are targeted to geographical areas at greatest risk and mentors will assist local entities to focus on sub-populations at greatest risk. Mentors will also educate project sites on the need to address access to lethal means. Therefore this approach addresses the needs identified in Section A. Because the WSPS follows the goals and objectives of the NSSP (see Appendix 4) it is clearly supported by the NSSP.

2. Grant Activities. The grant activities can be thought of as falling into two distinct, but related, parts. First, we will support the development of 10 local youth suicide prevention efforts through the provision of grants, mentoring and expert consultation. The competitive application process described in Sec. A, 4. will ensure that sites are selected by October 1, 2005. Second, a variety of methods will be utilized to disseminate information about youth suicide prevention and the lessons learned from the project sites to promote sustainability.

a. Local youth suicide prevention projects. The project utilizes a mentoring and expert consultation approach to achieve the goals of the project. The approach is especially well suited to Wisconsin’s system of local control as it maximizes local initiative while, at the same time, ensuring that local sites benefit from what is currently known about best practices. This approach has been utilized in a variety of human services and education-related initiatives in Wisconsin.

Each site will be assigned a mentor who has broad experience and knowledge related to suicide and excellent facilitation skills. This mentor will:

• Meet with the local coalitions established through this project to assess the local needs and resources.
• Assist local coalitions to identify where issues of age, race, ethnicity, culture, language, sexual orientation, disability, literacy and gender are significant issues for the target population.
• Educate the local coalitions on identified evidence-based or best practices.
• Assist local coalitions to develop and implement a workplan.
• Assist the local coalitions to identify training and expert consultation needs.

The MHA will make available expert consultants in a variety of areas; including experts in working with various cultural groups, suicide prevention programs (e.g., TeenScreen) and systems (e.g. law enforcement). A partial list of such consultants is identified in Table 5. Funds will be allocated equitably across sites in years 1 and 2 of the grant. Where it makes sense, multi-site training and education sessions will be utilized.

Mentors will meet on-site with members of the coalition 9-12 times per year during the first two years of the project. Site visits will be reduced when project staff determines that the coalitions have developed the ability to manage their local activities. Monthly teleconferences including the local coordinators, the mentors, the project coordinator, MCW and key state partners will be utilized to monitor progress across sites, identify and address barriers to project implementation, discuss issues of concern to all sites (such as evaluation-related issues) and provide an opportunity for feedback from the local sites. Members of the state-level Suicide Prevention Initiative (SPI) steering committee will be invited to participate in these meetings to provide two-way feedback between the SPI and the project sites. Table __ is a workplan for the project sites other than WSD.

Name/

Expertise

John Humphries; *school suicide prevention

Chris Hanna*; rural issues

Capri-Mara Fillmore*; pre-and post-partum depression.

Linda Russell, D/HOH

*Presented at SPRC Regions 3 and 5 Conference, Pittsburgh, May 18-20, 2005

TABLE 6: Workplan for Project Sites (other than WSD)

WSD’s workplan is unique for a number of reasons:

• MHA is currently working with WSD as part of our mini-grant project.
• WSD serves students from across Wisconsin so has a different “community” to address.
• WSD is currently communicating with Columbia TeenScreen about creating an American Sign Language (ASL) version of TeenScreen for use with their students. If TeenScreen agrees to this, this project will be funded under the MHA’s mini-grant to WSD.
• WSD must work to develop cultural competence among area professionals so they better understand Deaf culture, know how to work with interpreters and thus can better respond to the mental health needs of the students.

Finally, the workplan includes development of an ASL version of the S.O.S. video that can potentially be a resource to deaf youth throughout the country. S.O.S. is an evidence-based program listed on SAMHSA’s National Registry of Effective Programs and Policies. Screening for Mental Health has committed to collaborate with us on this to ensure that the video accurately incorporates the A.C.T. model (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) they promote and Raymond Rodgers, a professional deaf producer, has also agreed to work with us on this. Their letters of commitment can be found in Sec. G. Table 7identifies anticipated activities that will be funded through this proposal:

TABLE 7: Workplan for WSD

b. Information Dissemination. Information dissemination activities are identified in Table __.