Tribal Suicide Prevention Program

The purpose of this project is to identify/create, implement, evaluate, and improve holistic community-based interventions that increase tribal specific protective factors and reduce risk factors for suicide in a culturally centered way. Focusing on community-based protective factors has resounding evidence to be more effective than simply reducing risk factors, which is why this will be key for achieving the following three objectives:

Objective 1) Enhance community-based cultural interventions to address protective and risk factors in at least 2 tribal communities.

Objective 2) Develop culturally appropriate programs within 2 tribal communities to identify community members at risk of suicide and link them to resources.

Objective 3) Assess local crisis identification and postvention resources in tribal communities to prevent suicide contagions and strengthen access and knowledge of these resources.

The key to this effort is strengthening connections to traditional culture; traditional approaches to wellness and healing; and enhancing connectedness across generations within families and among caring community members. With connectedness and healing in the center, these objectives will be obtained through the following activities:

1. Working with tribal partners to implement school-based cultural curriculums that focus on protective factors and reduce risk factors for suicide in a culturally centered way.
2. Conducting community outreach to promote community and family connectedness (such as suicide prevention walks and back to school nights).
3. Supporting tribal community programs that promote protective factors to prevent suicide (this includes intergenerational campouts, intergeneration tradition food gardens, and hunting and fishing activities).
4. Provide trainings such as Talk Saves Lives, and Safety-Care for Families across the SPTHB/OKTEC service area.
5. Increasing awareness of 988 and other suicide prevention resources through various communication platforms including Goodhealth TV, the SPTHB texting tree (text Hope to 55251), and social media.
6. Develop a plan to increase community members’ knowledge of crisis processes and postvention resources that are accessible to them.
7. Disseminate the SPTHB Wellness Resource Toolkit