How Suicide Prevention International is Unique?

Our ability to treat depression and prevent suicide has improved significantly over the  past two decades, but proven suicide prevention measures have still not reached people in large areas of the United States and the rest of the world. SPI is committed to changing that.
 
SPI is uniquely positioned to undertake this effort. Utilizing its international network of experts, SPI undertakes demonstration projects that are most likely to prevent suicide, selects qualified investigators, and works with them in developing and conducting the projects from beginning to end.
 
SPI’s Scientific Advisory Council includes distinguished representatives from 24 countries with expertise in suicide prevention.  Advances in suicide prevention, as in science in general, are coming from all over the world so that international collaboration is an invaluable asset in any suicide prevention initiative.

SPI’s dynamic approach and broad base of expertise is already implementing a wide range of projects. 

Recognizing an Imminent Suicide Crisis (RISC)
The inability to recognize when someone is at acute risk for suicide, as opposed to chronic risk, has been an enormous barrier to our ability to help suicidal patients.  SPI scientists have developed an instrument that holds the promise of being able to do just that. It is being tested and implemented at a major medical center. Read more >>>  

Physicians Depression and Suicide Prevention
Moved by concern for the high rate of suicide among physicians, SPI is working to eliminate the barriers that discourage physicians, who are aware of their depression, from seeking help. These barriers include the procedures and policies of many state licensing boards and hospitals.

Support for Survivors of Suicide
SPI is training mental health professionals at social service agencies, at home and abroad to help individuals and families resolve the grief and pain of the loss of a loved one to suicide. Our program is underway at the University Settlement in New York City and at the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center in China. Read more >>>

Youth Suicide Prevention
The suicide rate among adolescents and young adults has tripled in the last fifty years. Israel has experienced a comparable increase in the past twenty-five years. Prominent SPI scientists in the United States and Israel are developing a collaborative project aimed at preventing suicide in this age group.

Suicide Prevention in the Elderly
The elderly have the highest rates of suicide. With an increasingly aging population, the number of suicides among them will rise significantly. Yet there has been minimal attention paid to the problem. SPI scientists are developing two projects designed to prevent suicide among the elderly.

European Alliance Against Depression
Investigators in Nuremberg, Germany developed a successful community-based action program to improve the care of depressed people and to prevent suicidality. The program’s results were so encouraging that it became a model for 16 countries in Europe and spread to regions throughout Germany. SPI is working with German investigators to collect and analyze the data.

Suicide Prevention in China:
Developing a Mental Health Service Network in Rural China
With 21 percent of the world’s population, China has between 30 and 40 percent of the world’s suicides. Three quarters of the suicides are in rural China. This project builds on the existing health care system in rural China to develop a mental health service network of personnel in the villages and towns to recognize and refer individuals with depression, and/or risk for suicide to a  county mental hospital for specific treatment.

Suicide Prevention in Vietnam
In Vietnam, a rapidly developing country, there is concern over what appears to be a significant accompanying rise in suicide. There is, however, no system in place for recording any causes of death apart from those occurring in hospitals. SPI is working with a leading suicide researcher in Vietnam who has studied extensively the current monitoring system and has developed a comprehensive plan for changing it.