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WASHINGTON – A U.S. grant program that was started in 2004 to fund youth suicide prevention efforts throughout the country was linked with nearly 900 youth suicide deaths prevented by 2015, according to a matched, case-control analysis.
U.S. counties with a youth suicide prevention effort funded by a grant from the federal Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Suicide Prevention program had an average 1.09 fewer youth suicide deaths per 100,000 youths (10-24 years old) 2 years after ongoing funding began, when compared with matched U.S. counties without a GLS-funded program, said Mr. Garraza, an analyst with ICF International in New York. Counties that had GLS-funded programs operating for 3 years showed an average reduction in youth suicide death of roughly 2 fewer deaths per 100,000 population, compared with control counties, and counties with programs in operation for 4 years showed a reduction of roughly 3 fewer deaths per 100,000 population.
“These extremely important data show convincingly that if we want to save lives, suicide prevention can’t be a one-and-done. said Richard McKeon, PhD, chief of the Suicide Prevention Branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. agency that administers the GLS grant program and commissioned ICF International to analyze the grant program’s effects.
As of October 2017, the GLS grant initiative had made nearly 200 awards to youth suicide prevention programs that operated in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, one territory, and among 49 Native American tribes, Mr. Garraza said.
To assess the effects of the GLS grants on suicide death rates in people aged 10-24 years, Mr. Garraza and his associates used U.S. suicide data collected in 2,095 counties throughout the country that each had more than 3,000 resident youths, including 1,126 counties that had, as of 2015, been exposed to at least 1 year of a program sponsored by a GLS grant that began before 2010 and 969 counties without any GLS-grant exposure. After the counties in each subgroup were propensity-score matched using several criteria, including numbers of youth by specific age, race, household income, employment rates, health insurance status, and urbanization, the researchers analyzed suicide death rates in 481 counties with 1-4 years of exposure of a GLS-funded prevention program and in 851 counties with no exposure.
Their analysis estimated that 882 fewer suicide deaths occurred among youths in counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the expected suicide mortality based on the unexposed counties.
In addition to showing statistically significant mortality reductions among youths in the counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the counties with no such programs, the analysis showed, as expected, no difference between the intervention and control counties in rates of suicide deaths among adults and no difference in youth-mortality from causes other than suicide, which indicated that the observed differences linked with GLS funding were specific for youth suicides.
The current analysis looking at the effects of GLS funding on youth suicide deaths rates follows a prior report from the same researchers with similar findings using data collected through 2010 (Am J Public Health. 2015 May;105[5]:986-93). They also published two prior reports that used a similar analysis to assess the effects of GLS-funded suicide prevention programs on suicide attempt rates. One of those reports showed that GLS-funded programs linked with a cut in suicide attempts of nearly 5 per 1,000 population (JAMA Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;72[11]:1143-9), and the second showed that this effect on suicide attempts was cost effective when the cost of the grants was compared with the money saved from avoided emergency department visits and hospitalizations (Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2018 Feb;48[1]:3-11).
WASHINGTON – A U.S. grant program that was started in 2004 to fund youth suicide prevention efforts throughout the country was linked with nearly 900 youth suicide deaths prevented by 2015, according to a matched, case-control analysis.
U.S. counties with a youth suicide prevention effort funded by a grant from the federal Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Suicide Prevention program had an average 1.09 fewer youth suicide deaths per 100,000 youths (10-24 years old) 2 years after ongoing funding began, when compared with matched U.S. counties without a GLS-funded program, said Mr. Garraza, an analyst with ICF International in New York. Counties that had GLS-funded programs operating for 3 years showed an average reduction in youth suicide death of roughly 2 fewer deaths per 100,000 population, compared with control counties, and counties with programs in operation for 4 years showed a reduction of roughly 3 fewer deaths per 100,000 population.
“These extremely important data show convincingly that if we want to save lives, suicide prevention can’t be a one-and-done. said Richard McKeon, PhD, chief of the Suicide Prevention Branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. agency that administers the GLS grant program and commissioned ICF International to analyze the grant program’s effects.
As of October 2017, the GLS grant initiative had made nearly 200 awards to youth suicide prevention programs that operated in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, one territory, and among 49 Native American tribes, Mr. Garraza said.
To assess the effects of the GLS grants on suicide death rates in people aged 10-24 years, Mr. Garraza and his associates used U.S. suicide data collected in 2,095 counties throughout the country that each had more than 3,000 resident youths, including 1,126 counties that had, as of 2015, been exposed to at least 1 year of a program sponsored by a GLS grant that began before 2010 and 969 counties without any GLS-grant exposure. After the counties in each subgroup were propensity-score matched using several criteria, including numbers of youth by specific age, race, household income, employment rates, health insurance status, and urbanization, the researchers analyzed suicide death rates in 481 counties with 1-4 years of exposure of a GLS-funded prevention program and in 851 counties with no exposure.
Their analysis estimated that 882 fewer suicide deaths occurred among youths in counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the expected suicide mortality based on the unexposed counties.
In addition to showing statistically significant mortality reductions among youths in the counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the counties with no such programs, the analysis showed, as expected, no difference between the intervention and control counties in rates of suicide deaths among adults and no difference in youth-mortality from causes other than suicide, which indicated that the observed differences linked with GLS funding were specific for youth suicides.
The current analysis looking at the effects of GLS funding on youth suicide deaths rates follows a prior report from the same researchers with similar findings using data collected through 2010 (Am J Public Health. 2015 May;105[5]:986-93). They also published two prior reports that used a similar analysis to assess the effects of GLS-funded suicide prevention programs on suicide attempt rates. One of those reports showed that GLS-funded programs linked with a cut in suicide attempts of nearly 5 per 1,000 population (JAMA Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;72[11]:1143-9), and the second showed that this effect on suicide attempts was cost effective when the cost of the grants was compared with the money saved from avoided emergency department visits and hospitalizations (Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2018 Feb;48[1]:3-11).
WASHINGTON – A U.S. grant program that was started in 2004 to fund youth suicide prevention efforts throughout the country was linked with nearly 900 youth suicide deaths prevented by 2015, according to a matched, case-control analysis.
U.S. counties with a youth suicide prevention effort funded by a grant from the federal Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Suicide Prevention program had an average 1.09 fewer youth suicide deaths per 100,000 youths (10-24 years old) 2 years after ongoing funding began, when compared with matched U.S. counties without a GLS-funded program, said Mr. Garraza, an analyst with ICF International in New York. Counties that had GLS-funded programs operating for 3 years showed an average reduction in youth suicide death of roughly 2 fewer deaths per 100,000 population, compared with control counties, and counties with programs in operation for 4 years showed a reduction of roughly 3 fewer deaths per 100,000 population.
“These extremely important data show convincingly that if we want to save lives, suicide prevention can’t be a one-and-done. said Richard McKeon, PhD, chief of the Suicide Prevention Branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. agency that administers the GLS grant program and commissioned ICF International to analyze the grant program’s effects.
As of October 2017, the GLS grant initiative had made nearly 200 awards to youth suicide prevention programs that operated in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, one territory, and among 49 Native American tribes, Mr. Garraza said.
To assess the effects of the GLS grants on suicide death rates in people aged 10-24 years, Mr. Garraza and his associates used U.S. suicide data collected in 2,095 counties throughout the country that each had more than 3,000 resident youths, including 1,126 counties that had, as of 2015, been exposed to at least 1 year of a program sponsored by a GLS grant that began before 2010 and 969 counties without any GLS-grant exposure. After the counties in each subgroup were propensity-score matched using several criteria, including numbers of youth by specific age, race, household income, employment rates, health insurance status, and urbanization, the researchers analyzed suicide death rates in 481 counties with 1-4 years of exposure of a GLS-funded prevention program and in 851 counties with no exposure.
Their analysis estimated that 882 fewer suicide deaths occurred among youths in counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the expected suicide mortality based on the unexposed counties.
In addition to showing statistically significant mortality reductions among youths in the counties with GLS-funded programs, compared with the counties with no such programs, the analysis showed, as expected, no difference between the intervention and control counties in rates of suicide deaths among adults and no difference in youth-mortality from causes other than suicide, which indicated that the observed differences linked with GLS funding were specific for youth suicides.
The current analysis looking at the effects of GLS funding on youth suicide deaths rates follows a prior report from the same researchers with similar findings using data collected through 2010 (Am J Public Health. 2015 May;105[5]:986-93). They also published two prior reports that used a similar analysis to assess the effects of GLS-funded suicide prevention programs on suicide attempt rates. One of those reports showed that GLS-funded programs linked with a cut in suicide attempts of nearly 5 per 1,000 population (JAMA Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;72[11]:1143-9), and the second showed that this effect on suicide attempts was cost effective when the cost of the grants was compared with the money saved from avoided emergency department visits and hospitalizations (Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2018 Feb;48[1]:3-11).
REPORTING FROM THE AAS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Key clinical point: A U.S. youth suicide prevention grant program seems to be making a difference.
Major finding: During 2007-2015, U.S. counties with youth suicide prevention funding had 882 fewer deaths than expected.
Study details: A case-control analysis of U.S. counties that received federal funding for youth-suicide prevention.
Disclosures: Mr. Garraza and Dr. McKeon had no disclosures.