Striving for Zero Suicide
Challenge: While Douglas County community organizations have always wanted to ensure the health of their constituents, many were lacking the suicide prevention skills they needed to understand risk factors, identify the signs of suicidal ideation or behavior, and intervene skillfully. Between 2017 and 2021, suicide was the second leading cause of death for Douglas County residents ages 15-44, and the seventh leading cause of death for Douglas County residents ages 45-64. It was raised as a priority concern for the County in the 2017 Community Health Assessment, which informed the 2018-2023 Community Health Plan. As a part of that plan, Zero Suicide was identified as both an integration and prevention strategy.
Response: In October 2020, Douglas County hosted the first Zero Suicide Academy in the state of Kansas and trained 60 individuals from nine different area organizations in the innovative Zero Suicide model to help better meet the needs of community members experiencing suicide risk.
Zero Suicide is a way to improve suicide care within healthcare and behavioral health systems. The framework equips these systems with all the training and tools they need to do this. The foundational belief of Zero Suicide is that suicide deaths for individuals under the care of health and behavioral health systems are preventable. Zero Suicide presents an aspirational challenge and practical framework for system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care. This work in Douglas County is groundbreaking. While there has been an enormous effort across the state for healthcare and behavioral healthcare organizations to implement Zero Suicide, Douglas County remains the only place in Kansas that is implementing this framework across the whole county system.
Impact: Since the Zero Suicide Academy in 2020, participating Douglas County organizations have continued the work of Zero Suicide by creating new policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of lifesaving Zero Suicide strategies. Implementing organizations include Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, DCCCA, Heartland Community Health Center, Heartland RADAC, Kansas Suicide Prevention HQ, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, LMH Health, The Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center and The Willow Domestic Violence Center. These partners have made major strides on this project. One success is that every implementing organization in the County is using the same tools for identifying risk and planning for safety, which means that all providers and supports are speaking the same language, allowing for smoother communication across the system.
While each participating organization in Douglas County is in different phases of implementation, there are a few exciting site transformations that have taken place. One highlight is that LMH Health has altered their suicide screening processes so that every patient seen in the Emergency Department or admitted to an inpatient unit, regardless of the presenting issue, is screened for suicide risk. Additionally, primary care clinics across the LMH Health System have implemented new screening and response pathways so that all patients have the opportunity to receive suicide care if they need it. Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has been working diligently to implement Zero Suicide in their WIC and Healthy Families programs and will eventually expand into their clinic.
With the Douglas County Crisis Line now linked to 988, the Mobile Response Team and the Treatment & Recovery Center, we foresee Zero Suicide implementation in our community being even more impactful in the coming months and years.
Learn more about Zero Suicide
Watch the Zero Suicide Healthcare Call to Action
Increasing Access to Social Detox Services
Challenge: Social detox services provide room, board, and interpersonal support to intoxicated individuals and individuals in substance use withdrawal. Prior to 2018, social detox services were available only to women in Douglas County at DCCCA’s First Step at Lakeview facility. There were no available social detox facilities in Douglas County for men.
Response: In 2018, Douglas County initiated a peer-led social detox program in partnership with DCCCA, LMH Health, and Heartland Community Health Clinic, so that men in Douglas County could receive social detox service in conjunction with the best practice of peer support, or support from those who have themselves experienced and survived alcoholism and addiction.
Impact: Between 2018 and 2021, 501 individuals (161 men) entered the County’s social detox program. The program completion rate has ranged between 68% and 73%.