Suicide Prevention Research in the Community Lab (SPRCL)

Transforming Youth Suicide Prevention in Michigan (TYSP) is a statewide program housed within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with the University of Michigan. TYSP program goals are as follows: 

Goal 1: Expand Michigan’s clinical safety net by leveraging TYSP’s Youth Suicide Prevention Emergency Department (ED) Network to promote improvements in clinical care and to scale-up innovative supports for youth and families in crisis.

Goal 2: Advance the decade-long partnership between TYSP and Michigan’s Child Welfare (CW) Administration which promotes suicide prevention competency development and the implementation of trauma-informed, evidence-based screening, risk assessment, and brief interventions in child protective services, foster care, and CW residential facilities.

Goal 3: Increase the capacity of Michigan’s clinical providers to screen, assess, and treat youth and young adults with suicide risk via pre-service training and continuing education. 

Goal 4: Support youth-serving agencies and local communities to implement culturally tailored suicide prevention strategies aligned with community needs via technical assistance, training, educational, and funding opportunities.

Goal 5: Build Michigan’s postvention capacity by expanding a new network of Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors (LOSS) teams across the state with funding, training, and technical assistance. 

TYSP will increase capacity in youth-serving organizations and within clinical providers to identify, support, and treat youth at risk for suicide. The University of Michigan’s Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES) will continue to serve as a Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for Michigan’s Youth Suicide Prevention ED Network, supporting implementation of a developmentally tailored, family centered adaptation of Zero Suicide and translating innovative programs including parent-focused text messaging follow-up and a school-based continuity of care program into a growing number of ED catchment areas. Recognizing the elevated risk profile and over-representation of marginalized youth in the CW system, TYSP will continue to offer unique workforce trainings, building competencies in recognition, treatment linkage, and the implementation of safety and support interventions in the home setting. TYSP will offer training in best practice care management and treatment as well as post-training consultation to clinicians serving our highest risk youth in the state, strengthening the network of individuals able to care for youth and families at risk. A network of state government and private partners, including those with lived experience, will continue to advise the program and each other to enhance communication and strategic planning with a new task force devoted to ensuring equity in prevention planning and resource allocation. Last, TYSP will strengthen and expand a network of LOSS teams in Michigan, providing on scene support to suicide bereaved youth and families.

• Transforming Youth Suicide Prevention in Michigan-3 SAMHSA grant program
• Child Welfare Certificate Suicide Prevention Modules
• Predictors of suicide coping self-efficacy among youth presenting to a psychiatric emergency department

The state of Michigan was honored to be funded in the initial cohort of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program grant. The 5-year project (2020-2025) titled Preventing Suicide in Michigan Men (PRiSMM) focuses on implementing and evaluating a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention among Michigan men ages 25+. Dr. Ewell Foster’s team leads the program-wide evaluation as well as a statewide dissemination and evaluation of Counseling on Access to Lethal Means.  

• PRiSMM Abstract
• PRiSMM Community Resource Scan

This NIMH-funded intervention development grant is a partnership between the University of Michigan, the emergency department at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and MiSide and is seeking to combine two evidence-based interventions (the Youth Nominated Support Team) and cognitive behavioral therapy for suicide prevention for black youth served by the public mental health system in Detroit. 

Co-investigators: Cheryl King, Polly Gipson-Allan, Carol Janney, Shawna Smith, Alejandra Arango

Specific aims

Firearm related injuries are the leading cause of death among youth in the United States, with firearms accounting for over half of our nation’s suicide deaths. Rates of firearm-related suicides among rural youth are increasing at an alarming rate and although safe firearm storage reduces risk, few interventions exist that are tailored to rural communities where firearms are prevalent and an important part of community and family culture. Store Safely, a culturally tailored multi-component primary prevention strategy for rural families will be tested using a Hybrid Type 2 effectiveness-implementation design to examine its impact on family firearm storage and to determine the most effective dissemination strategies for this highly scalable intervention.

Project details

Co-investigators: Cheryl King, Pat Carter, Jason Goldstick, Courtney Bagge

Recent publications: Ewell Foster, C., Magness, C. S., Derwin, S., Kahsay, E., Smith, T., Rivara, F. P., Massey, L., & King, C. A. (2024). Store safely: A firearm injury prevention strategy for rural families. Journal of Rural Mental Health, 48(4), 247–258. https://doi.org/10.1037/rmh0000276

• National conference highlights need for evidence-based strategies to address firearm injury prevention
• Tailored approach makes inroads in rural firearm safe storage