Other DADS resources
Resources for DADS service providers
Suicide prevention plans
The plan is intended as a suicide-prevention resource by Texas communities and agencies. It envisions a coordinated effort by institutions and individuals to offer hope, help, and support for all Texans affected by their own, or someone else's suicidal thoughts and behavior. The Texas plan, like the national strategy, has three major components: awareness, intervention, and methodology. The awareness component strives to increase public awareness that suicide is a preventable health problem. The intervention component seeks to develop and implement community-based suicide prevention programs (e.g., schools, colleges and universities, employers, correctional institutions, aging networks). The methodology promotes and supports research on suicide and suicide-prevention strategies.
The Bexar County Area Agency on Aging, in collaboration with the Alamo Area Council of Governments, has implemented the ASIST Model (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). The Community Crisis Coalition, a group comprising public, private, and not-for-profit agencies that recognized the need to assist families and individuals facing mental health crisis in San Antonio and Bexar County. Through ASIST, people become certified suicide intervention trainers using the Living Works Program accredited by the National Suicidology Association. The Bexar program provides trainees with knowledge and skills they need to identify potential elder suicide risk factors, outreach and support and offer support, and link people with community resources. Participants include caregivers and mental health professionals, as well as other allied health care providers, long-term care facility staff, counselors, teachers and ministers, emergency service workers, volunteers, and other community advocates.
In recognition of suicide survivors and mental health advocates across the state, and in response to the U.S. Surgeon General's call to action and the national effort to address suicide, the House Committee on Human Services was charged to "study the extent and causes of suicide and whether Texas should implement a suicide prevention program." In an interim report, the Committee recommended that:
- the Legislature establish a comprehensive statewide suicide-prevention plan built upon the efforts of the Texas Suicide Prevention Steering Committee;
- the Legislature establish a Suicide Prevention Council to design and implement a statewide suicide prevention plan;
- the Legislature mandate health insurance policies to cover mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders with coverage substantially equivalent to that provided for other medical conditions; and
- the Legislature direct the Texas Departments of Insurance and Health to explore ways to provide oversight, including data accountability, for the provision of mental health care benefits and resources.
Updated: October 21, 2009