Welcome!

Welcome to the February 2019 Office of Suicide Prevention newsletter! As our office continues to grow, we wanted to create a better communication channel to highlight new resources, community-level work, funding opportunities, and upcoming events. We hope you will find this a valuable resource to keep you plugged in to Suicide Prevention in Colorado!

Put your hands together for North Range Behavioral Health SESS


Pictured: Michelle Dalpra, Postvention Specialist and Educator; Kimberly Pratt, MA Project Coordinator

Suicide Education and Support Services (SESS), a program of North Range Behavioral Health, is an organization that provides Weld County, Colorado. SESS provides training to over 7,000 community members and postvention and crisis services to an average of 500 community members annually. SESS’ prevention services includes trainings in 35 middle and high schools, QPR and ASIST training for first responders, educators, and community partners and collaboration with community coalitions. Postvention services include immediate crisis response to a loss by suicide, closed 8-week groups and monthly drop in groups and debriefing and brief grief support. All of SESS’ services are offered at no-cost to the community.

This team also runs an OSP community grant focusing on spreading awareness of the free www.mantherapy.org website and is the regional hub for youth suicide prevention coordination.

Thank you for all that you do Michelle and Kimberly!

Interested in a quick snapshot of the office? Check out our recently updated OSP program fact sheet.

The office has updated suicide postvention resource pages on www.COOSP.org:

• "After a Suicide Attempt or Suicidal Experience"
• "After a Suicide Loss"
   

Data Dashboard Update

The CoVDRS program recently updated it's Colorado Suicide Data Dashboard. The new version has some exciting updates.

• Through a partnership with the Office of Health Care Policy and Finance the dashboard now contains information on decedents who were enrolled in Medicaid within two years of death.
• New mechanisms for sharing feedback and questions.
• New 2017 rate and count data, as well as new 2016 CoVDRS circumstance data.
   

Free Clinical Training: The OSP will provide CAMS (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality) training for select mental health and behavioral health providers in 2019. We still have space available at three CAMS trainings:

• In Greeley on 4/16/19;
• In Grand Junction on 6/11/19;
• In Pueblo on 7/30/19.

For more information about the CAMS trainings coming to Colorado in 2019 through the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention, please email Lena Heilmann at Lena.Heilmann@state.co.us.
 

Suicide prevention and opioid overdose prevention go hand in hand: check out CDPHE’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Resources
 

CDPHE’s own Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tista Ghosh Shining a light on physician suicide.
 

The OSP also has materials for YMHFA, SafeTALK, and QPR available for organizations needing financial assistance to provide community trainings. Click the links to request material assistance while supplies last! (there is also funding to support Mental Health First Aid Trainings in Colorado- more information here).

Free online training with CME for medical providers to promote firearm safety:

From the Press Release: “With more than 38,000 Americans dying from firearm-related injuries each year and an estimated 85,000 people surviving non-fatal firearm injuries, the American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a new online continuing medical education (CME) module to help prepare physicians to counsel their patients on firearm safety. The module is designed to assist physicians, particularly those who specialize in primary care and emergency medicine, in recognizing risk factors that increase the potential for firearm injury and death, identifying barriers to communicating with patients about firearm safety, and effectively communicating with patients to reduce the risk of firearm injury and death…” Read the full release here.

The module is available for free on the AMA Ed Hub™ and qualifies for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

New SPRC video series: These videos are brief and engaging and address topics related to effective suicide prevention, including lived experience and collaborative safety planning:

• Lived Experience: What It Is and How to Include It
• A Lived Experience Story About What Makes a Difference
• Collaborating on Safety Plans
• Aftercare That Makes a Difference
• Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments and Suicide-Specific Brief Interventions

Health Watches

• Health Watch No.108. The Association between Toxicology and Suicide Notes among Firearm Suicide Decedents, 2004-2015: An Analysis from the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System, Jewell Johnson, MPH.
• Health Watch No.107. Use of Mental Health Treatment among Those Who Had a Criminal Legal Problem Associated with Their Suicide, 2004-2015, An Analysis from the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System, Brett Lipshetz, MPH.

CDPHE Colorado Coroner Mini-Grant Opportunity

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Opioid Overdose Prevention Program invites Colorado coroners' offices to apply for mini-grants offered to support coroners as they deal with the opioid crisis in Colorado. CDPHE commits to award 15 awards of up to $5,000 each. Any unfunded applications will be kept until August 31, 2019, and may be awarded if further funding becomes available. Apply now.
 

2019 School Professional Grant

Applications are now available for the 2019-20 School Professional Grant (SPG) that exists to help K-12 schools:

1. Increase the presence of school professionals in K-12 schools to provide substance abuse and behavioral health care to students who are enrolled in K-12 schools and have substance abuse or other behavioral health needs;

2. Provide training and resources for the newly hired school professionals, other behavioral health school team members, and school staff on the implementation of evidence-based programming on substance abuse prevention education and behavioral health education for all students who are enrolled in K-12 schools; and

3. Allow school professionals to provide care coordination and connect K-12 students with services that are provided by community-based organizations for treatment and counseling for students who are at risk for substance abuse.

Applications are due Thursday, March 21.

2019 Colorado Comprehensive Health Education Grant

Applications are now available for the 2019-20 Comprehensive Health Grant that exists to help K-12 schools:

The intent is to foster healthy behaviors by increasing students’ health knowledge and skills to establish and maintain their physical, emotional, social, mental, and sexual health and wellness in addition to the modification of risky behaviors. This will be a three-year continuing grant with approximately $300,000 available each year for distribution annually. Individual awards for eligible applicants will be granted for up to $30,000.

Applications are due on Thursday, March 7.

The Community Level Approaches to Impaired Driving Prevention RFA can be found here.
The purpose of this CDOT funding, with technical assistance support from CDPHE, is to partner with local agencies to increase safety by addressing the root causes of alcohol-impaired driving, through the implementation of population-level primary prevention strategies that reduce excessive alcohol use. By setting population-level goals to address excessive alcohol consumption, coalitions can drive efforts that reduce alcohol-impaired driving crashes and fatalities as well as other alcohol-related consequences, such as violence, cancer, and poor mental health outcomes.

Strategies to address Risk/Protective Factors such as:

• Availability of Substances
• Community Laws & Norms Favorable Toward Substance Use  
• Favorable Youth Attitudes toward Substance Use
• Favorable Parental Attitudes and Involvement in Substance Use
• Early Initiation of Substance Use
• Family History of Substance Abuse  
• Building Community Support for Ordinances, Regulations, Requirements for Establishments Selling Liquor, Marijuana, or Promoting Prescription Drug Use
• Build Public Support for Conventional Enforcement of Existing Laws

Applications are due by March 25, 2019.