Suicide rates continue to rise despite national suicide prevention strategies — and a lack of policy adoption may be at the root, KFF Health News reported Sept. 16.
In the past 20 years, federal officials have launched three national suicide prevention strategies:
- In 2001, the first strategy was announced that focused on addressing risk factors for suicide and leaned on common interventions.
- The second strategy called for developing and implementing standardized protocols to identify and treat people at risk of suicide, including follow-up care and support.
- The third strategy, announced in early 2024, called for implementation of 200 measures over the next three years.
However, between 2001 and 2021, suicide rates increased most years, and the CDC found that in provisional data for 2022, rates grew an additional 3%.
Despite the bleak results, experts said the national strategies are not the problem, adding that the issues lie with the lack of funding, adoption and use. There are a few reasons for slow uptake. First, suicide rates are higher in rural states, such as Alaska, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, where implementing strategies such as mobile units are more difficult due to how spread out residents are, the report said.
The lack of implementation is also a struggle among physicians. Many do not have the proper training or time to discuss suicide screening, according to the report, and that is assuming they are comfortable discussing suicide, Janet Lee, MD, an adolescent medicine specialist and associate professor of pediatrics at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, told KFF Health News.
Many states have not standardized systems or measures, resulting in incomplete data and differing services that make analysis difficult across states, the report said. Issues also have arisen with respect to the 988 suicide and crisis hotline that launched in 2022. Only 23% of Americans are familiar with the resource, a recent National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos poll found.