Suicide Prevention & Postvention

Developed by the University of Calgary, the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Framework is based on the Campus Mental Health Strategy’s vision to create a caring campus community. The framework focuses on long-term system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care for students using seven key goals with the mission to prevent all suicides. The framework focuses on responsiveness and reflects principles within the Zero Suicide Framework created by the Zero Suicide Institute and the Suicide Prevention Resource Centre.

This presentation provides insights into suicidal behaviour from existing literature and surveys in post-secondary settings as well as insights from a study on the correlates and predictors or suicidal behaviours. The presentation also highlights who improves and what facilitates improvement, treatment and how many see treatment and engagement. 

In this session, a panel of speakers shared the University of Calgary’s approach to handling student deaths. Each member of the panel presented on an aspect of broader policy, communication and clinical response or practice.
Presentation slides available for download.

Zero Suicide is a system-wide, organizational commitment to safer suicide care in health and behavioural health care systems. The Zero Suicide Toolkit operationalizes the core components necessary for health care systems to transform suicide care, and groups them into seven elements.

The University of Alberta (U of A) Suicide Prevention Framework outlines a five-part framework for enhancing suicide prevention. Specifically, the report identifies 36 recommendations across the five categories to build upon student, staff, and faculty mental health and wellness services and to improve the capacity and capability for suicide prevention at the U of A.

Postvention: A Guide for Response to Suicide on College Campuses, created by the Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA), provides guidance for colleges and universities for responding to a suicide on campus.

Developed by the JED Foundation, this resource aims to help campuses develop institutional protocols for acutely distressed or suicidal college students.

This paper summarizes current knowledge regarding the epidemiology of suicide & its prevention among college & university students in the United States. It describes a sample of current suicide prevention efforts & recommends ways in which colleges & universities can promote health & prevent suicidal behaviour among their students.