The Surgeon General's Call To Action
To Prevent Suicide, 1999

At a Glance: Recommendations

Awareness: Broaden the public's awareness of suicide and its risk factors.

• Promote public awareness that suicide is a public health problem and, as such, many suicides are preventable. Use information technology to make facts about suicide and suicide prevention widely and appropriately available to the general public and health care providers.
• Expand awareness of and enhance access to resources for suicide prevention programs in communities.
• Develop and implement strategies to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide and with seeking help for such problems.

Intervention: Enhance services and programs, both population-based and clinical care.

• Extend collaboration with and between public and private sectors to complete a National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.
• Improve ability of primary care providers to recognize and treat depression, substance abuse, and other major mental illnesses associated with suicide risk. Increase the referral to specialty care when appropriate.
• Eliminate barriers in public and private insurance programs for provision of quality mental health treatments and create incentives to treat patients with coexisting mental and substance abuse disorders.
• Institute training for all health, mental health, and human service professionals (such as clergy, teachers, correctional workers, and social workers) concerning suicide risk assessment and recognition, treatment, management and aftercare interventions.
• Develop and implement effective training programs for family members of those at risk and for natural community helpers on how to recognize, respond to, and refer people showing signs of suicide risk. Natural community helpers are people such as educators, coaches, hairdressers, and faith leaders, among others.
• Develop and implement safe and effective programs in educational settings for youth that address adolescent distress, crisis intervention and incorporate peer support for seeking help.
• Enhance community care resources by increasing the use of schools and workplaces as access points for mental and physical health services and providing comprehensive support programs for persons who survive the suicide of someone close to them.
• Promote a public/private collaboration with the media to assure that entertainment and news coverage represent balanced and informed portrayals of suicide and its prevention, mental illness, and mental health care.

Methodology: Advance the science of suicide prevention.

• Enhance research to understand risk and protective factors, their interaction, and their effects on suicide and suicidal behaviors. Additionally, increase research on effective suicide prevention programs, clinical treatments for suicidal individuals, and culture-specific interventions.
• Develop additional scientific strategies for evaluating suicide prevention interventions and ensure that evaluation components are included in all suicide prevention programs.
• Establish mechanisms for Federal, regional, and state interagency public health collaboration toward improving monitoring systems for suicide and suicidal behaviors and develop and promote standard terminology in these systems.
• Encourage the development and evaluation of new prevention technologies to reduce easy access to lethal means of suicide.

For more information, please contact the following offices:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
www.cdc.gov/ncipc
404-639-3286

Health Resources and Services Administration
www.hrsa.dhhs.gov
301-443-1989

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Suicide Research Consortium
www.nimh.nih.gov/research/suicide.htm
301-443-4536

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
www.samhsa.gov
301-443-8956

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health/Surgeon General 
www.surgeongeneral.gov
202-690-7694

Last revised: January 4, 2007