National Strategy for Suicide Prevention:
Goals and Objectives for Action
Preface from the Surgeon General:
Suicide exacts an enormous toll from the American people. Our Nation
loses 30,000 lives to this tragedy each year, another 650,000 receive
emergency care after attempting to take their own lives. The devastating
trauma, loss, and suffering is multiplied in the lives of family members
and friends. This document, National Strategy for Suicide Prevention
– Goals and Objectives for Action, lays the foundation of our Nation's
strategy to confront this serious public health problem.
At this document's source are countless dedicated individuals representing
every facet of our Nation's communities. They include representatives to a 1993 United Nations/World Health Organization Conference
who played key roles in establishing guidelines for national suicide prevention
strategies. They include the passionate grassroots activists whose
work stimulated Congressional Resolutions declaring suicide prevention
a national priority and calling for our own national strategy. They include
dedicated public servants and private individuals who jointly organized
and participated in the first National Suicide Prevention Conference in
1998 to consolidate a scientific base for this critical endeavor. These people
and their efforts led directly to publication of the Surgeon General's
Call to Action to Prevent Suicide - 1999 with its most important recommendation,
the completion of the National Strategy for Suicide
Prevention.
After listening to the concerns of the American people, Government
leaders helped bring stakeholders together in a shining example of public-
private collaboration to achieve this major milestone in public health.
Those who have invested their hearts and minds in this effort believe it
effectively points the way for organizations and individuals to curtail the
tragedy of suicide and suicidal behavior. Though it does not specify all
the details, it provides essential guidance and suggests the fundamental
activities that must follow–activities based on the best available science.
Nearly half of the States are engaged in suicide prevention and many
have already committed significant resources to implement programs.
Their leadership in evaluating the effectiveness of these programs will
help guide the efforts of States that follow in their paths. Most of these
plans recognize that much of the work of suicide prevention must occur
at the community level, where human relationships breathe life into public
policy. American communities are also home to scores of faith-based
and secular initiatives that help reduce risk factors and promote protective
factors associated with many of our most pressing social problems,
including suicide.
As you read further, keep in mind that the National Strategy for
Suicide Prevention is not the Surgeon General's strategy or the Federal
government's strategy; rather, it is the strategy of the American people
for improving their health and well-being through the prevention of suicide.
I congratulate each person who played a role in bringing it to completion.
You have served your fellow Americans well.
Sincerely yours,
David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Surgeon General
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