When public health officials notice or suspect a cluster of suicides trending in a certain area, the CDC suggests that they use three key steps to properly classify these matters.
Being able to more clearly identify and closely monitor suicide clusters at a public health level could help. "Community-specific actions might stop a suicide cluster from continuing and might prevent further suicides and any other effects related to the suspected suicide cluster," the CDC report says.
The latest guidelines are part of the second report in a three part research effort on rising suicides in the U.S., which increased by nearly 3% from 2021-2022, according to the agency.
Suicide clusters are defined as "a group of suicides or suicide attempts that occur closer together in time, space, or both than would normally be expected in a community," according to the CDC.
There are two types of clusters, those that occur in smaller, defined geographic areas like schools, a county etc., the other looks at these trends over larger regional areas. Clusters of suicides are generally rare, but as rates continue to rise, monitoring them is critical to prevention, the agency says.
To identify a possible suicide cluster in a community or region, the CDC suggests public health officials and clinicians follow three guidelines:
- If a cluster is suspected, public health officials should collect then review the data with a designated suicide cluster coordinating committee to decide if further investigation into it is needed.
- If further investigation is warranted, the CDC recommends creating a case definition for the cluster to help identify any new ones that may arise, determining a time frame to analyze cases in, gathering additional data and performing further analysis to find any other trends. If more investigation is needed after this point, this will be determined in the analysis.
- Once a cluster has been identified and assessed, understanding more about how, when, where and why it began is also vital. After this deeper analysis, the CDC encourages public reporting of the findings with the communities they affect.
"This CDC guidance is meant to support and assist communities in the assessment and investigation of suspected suicide clusters that can ultimately guide public health action (e.g., community response) to prevent suicide," the CDC wrote. "Investigating a suspected cluster requires substantial time and resources for the lead agency and community. Ideally, the committee and liaison are prepared to receive concerns, engage key partners, and assess and investigate suspected clusters."