New Hampshire Takes Action To Prevent Suicide
New Hampshire has begun the process of addressing the issue of youth suicide:
- New Hampshire Healthy People 2010 identifies suicide as a major public health issue.
- The NH Youth Suicide Prevention Assembly is an ongoing statewide collaboration collecting and analyzing suicide data and focusing on suicide prevention efforts.
- The Injury Prevention Project at Dartmouth Medical School has, as one of its critical components, suicide prevention. This project has collected data on youth suicide kept by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Medical Examiner's office. The data has been analyzed and can be used to support the urgency of this Action Step.
- The Injury Prevention Center has convened a working group to draft a statewide suicide prevention plan.
- The Suicide Prevention Partnership through the NH Charitable Foundation and funded by the Gutin Foundation is supporting a number of New Hamphsire initiatives including:
- The Frameworks Youth Suicide Prevention Project with NAMI NH that will develop community based protocols for responding to youth suicide events;
- A social work curriculum development program on suicide risk assessment at the University of New Hampshire; and
- A health screening program to improve medical screening for depression and suicide on the Seacoast.
- NAMI NH, The National Alliance For the Mentally Ill, helps to promote and coordinate annual National Depression Screening day activities in New Hampshire.
- The legislature passed HB240 that created a legislative committee to study the issue of youth suicide. Their report was completed in November of 2003.
