Preventing Suicide During Catastrophic Events and Beyond: Santa Clara County

In this video interview Mego Lien, Prevention Services Division Manager, Behavioral Health Services Department of Santa Clara County, shares how Santa Clara County, California has used the technical package and how the suicide prevention program has adapted its strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key learnings Mego shares include:

Suicide and suicide prevention are complex and require us to work collaboratively on a wide range of strategies.

- The CDC’s suicide prevention technical package helps communities understand best available research and apply fundamental public health models.

- The ability to adapt strategies during catastrophic events depends on the relationships and efforts in place beforehand.

- Recognizing how risk and protective factors for suicide prevention are impacted by a catastrophic event can help in adapting strategies and being responsive to a given context.

- Suicide prevention in Santa Clara County: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/bhd/services/sp/pages/spc.aspx

CDC’s suicide prevention technical package: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicideTechnicalPackage.pdf

Prevention Institute’s tools and resources for preventing trauma and suicide during catastrophic events and beyond: https://preventioninstitute.org/suicide-prevention/modules

* This project is supported by Cooperative Agreement No. 6 NU38OT000305-02-03 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services or the CDC.