ABSTRACT
Now at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, the US is entering a critical developmental time in the field of suicide research and prevention. More than two decades have passed since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to highlight the burden of suicide as a critical public health concern (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 1992; Rosenberg, Gelles, Holinger, Zahn, Stark, Conn et al., 1987) and more than a decade since the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its pivotal report (World Health Organization [WHO], 1996). Governmental and nongovernmental efforts to prevent suicide have grown rapidly, inspired by resolutions in the Senate (SRes. 84; May 6, 1997) and the House (HRes. 212; October 10, 1998), by the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide (Satcher, 1999), by the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (Satcher, 2001), and by reports from the Institute of Medicine (Goldsmith, Pellmar, Kleinman, & Bunney, 2002; New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003), the WHO (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002). These also were followed in 2003 by a report from the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003). Thus far, funding of more than $100 million through the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act has provided many states, tribes, universities, and schools with the resources to build suicide prevention programs for young people.
