Suffocation & Strangulation
It can be challenging to limit access to some types of means within the home. If you are concerned that someone in your home is at risk for suicide, have a conversation with them. Ask directly if they have thought about how they might attempt suicide, or what items they might use. Most often, people thinking about suicide have specific methods they plan to use and oftentimes they don’t deviate from their plan. Identifying an intended method can help you make a plan to reduce access to particular means.
In Controlled Environments
A number of suicide prevention strategies can be put in place in controlled environments such as hospitals, jails and prisons, and police custody.
1. Learn to recognize suicide warning signs and risk factors.
One effective strategy that organizations can implement is offering trainings on recognizing and responding to suicide risk to all staff in the organization. Another is to offer educational materials and crisis resources to family members and caregivers during visitation and at discharge.
2. Have suicide risk screening and assessment trainings and protocols in place to determine suicide risk level.
It’s important to provide staff with training in determining risk level using screening and/or assessment. By clearly defining protocols to follow based on risk level, staff will be more effective in recognizing and responding to suicide risk and able to use the strategies they’ve learned to help keep people safe.
3. Conduct an environmental scan and implement safety technologies.
Such as effective monitoring and supervision; collapsible shower heads, light fixtures, and doorknobs; and specially designed bedding that’s resistant to tearing.
4. Include counseling on access to lethal means and development of a safety plan as part of discharge protocols.
These interventions have been shown to reduce suicide risk and suicide attempts following discharge. For more information, please review Recommended Standard Care for People with Suicide Risk: Making Health Care Suicide Safe opens in a new windowopens PDF file .
5. Have a postvention plan in place to guide the response if a client, inmate, or staff member dies by suicide.
Responding effectively after a suicide death can help people to process trauma in healthier ways and reduce the risk of additional suicides.
Additional Resources
Safety Planning Intervention
This website opens in a new window provides resources, materials, and video tutorials to learn how to be effective when developing a safety plan. Additional information is also provided in this webinar opens in a new window provided by the Joint Commission (“Suicide Prevention Webinar: Implementing the Safety Planning Intervention in Your Organization”).
Counseling on Access to Lethal Means
This free online course opens in a new window focuses on how to reduce access to the methods people use to kill themselves. While this course is primarily designed for mental health professionals, others who work with people at risk for suicide, such as health care providers and social service professionals, may also benefit.
Joint Commission Suicide Reduction Tools
This website opens in a new window provides an overview of the seven essential elements of suicide care for health and behavioral health care systems to adopt, which were identified by the Action Alliance’s Clinical Care and Intervention Task Force.
Zero Suicide Model
This website opens in a new window provides information on a suicide care model outlining specific practices for health systems to use and a movement that seeks to make health care settings safer and more compassionate for people with suicidal thoughts and urges.
National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Suicide Prevention Portal
This website opens in a new window details requirements for a comprehensive, multipronged suicide prevention and intervention program in various settings: Jails, Prisons, Juvenile Facilities, Mental Health Services and Opioid Treatment Programs.
U.S. Marshall’s Service, Suicide Prevention and Recommended Practices
This website opens in a new window provides specific resources that are directly relevant to the DOJ Condition of Confinement Suicide Prevention initiatives.
Postvention Resources
A significant number of people exposed to suicide have negative and long-term mental health consequences, including increased risk of suicide themselves. Postvention offers support and healing to suicide loss survivors that can reduce risk. Postvention plans can be constructed at the community level, city or county level, and within schools and workplaces.
After Rural Suicide: A Guide for Coordinated Community Response opens in a new window
After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools opens in a new windowopens PDF file
A Manager’s Guide to Suicide Postvention in the Workplace opens in a new window