Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced that the Education Development Center in Newton, Massachusetts will receive a grant to establish a national suicide prevention resource center. The Education Development Center will receive approximately $2.5 million per year - for a total of 3 years - to provide information about and assistance in implementing suicide prevention programs.

"Even one death by suicide is one death too many," said Secretary Thompson. "The challenge for the new resource center is to identify, evaluate and promote community-based suicide prevention programs that work, and to create systems of services in which every door is an open door to help."

The new grant program is administered by HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie spoke about the new resource center's role in achieving the goals and objectives for action contained in the National Strategy to Prevent Suicide during a Capitol Hill briefing today on the Institute of Medicine report on suicide.

Saying, "Suicide is a preventable tragedy," Mr. Curie explained that "the National Strategy to Prevent Suicide details public and private sector opportunities to reduce the number of suicides. The new center will serve as a central resource for states and communities seeking to build and evaluate suicide prevention programs. It will help us raise awareness among young people and adults that help is available, treatment is effective and recovery is possible."

The national suicide prevention resource center is a collaborative effort among the Education Development Center, Inc., the American Association of Suicidology, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network.

SAMHSA, a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the United States. Information on SAMHSA's programs is available on the Internet at www.samhsa.gov.