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BACKGROUND: Youth suicide is a pressing public health concern, and transitions in care after a suicidal crisis represent a period of elevated risk. Disruptions in continuity of care and emotional support occur frequently. "Caring contacts" validating messages post discharge have the potential to enhance connections with patients and have been shown to improve outcomes. More recently, positive outcomes have been noted using caring contact text messages (SMS and MMS), which hold promise for engaging patients in a pediatric setting, but there are few studies describing the large-scale implementation of such an approach. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the process of developing and implementing automated caring contacts within a quality improvement framework, using a standardized series of supportive texts and images, for adolescents discharged from high-acuity programs at a large midwestern pediatric hospital. We describe lessons learned, including challenges and factors contributing to success. METHODS: We implemented the caring contacts intervention in 3 phases. Phase 1 entailed developing supportive statements and images designed to promote hope, inclusivity, and connection in order to create 2 sets of 8 text messages and corresponding images. Phase 2 included piloting caring contacts manually in the hospital's Psychiatric Crisis Department and Inpatient Psychiatry Unit and assessing the feasibility of implementation in other services, as well as developing workflows and addressing legal considerations. Phase 3 consisted of implementing an automated process to scale within 4 participating hospital services and integrating enrollment into the hospital's electronic medical records. Process outcome measures included staff compliance with approaching and enrolling eligible patients and results from an optional posttext survey completed by participants. RESULTS: Compliance data are presented for 4062 adolescent patients eligible for caring contacts. Overall, 88.65% (3601/4062) of eligible patients were approached, of whom 52.43% (1888/3601) were enrolled. In total, 94.92% (1792/1888) of enrolled participants completed the program. Comparisons of the patients eligible, approached, enrolled, and completed are presented. Primary reasons for eligible patients declining include not having access to a mobile phone (686/1705, 40.23%) and caregivers preferring to discuss the intervention at a later time (754/1705, 44.22%). The majority of patients responding to the optional posttext survey reported that the texts made them feel moderately to very hopeful (219/264, 83%), supported (232/264, 87.9%), that peers would be helped by these texts (243/264, 92%), and that they would like to keep receiving texts given the option (227/264, 86%). CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the successful implementation of automated postdischarge caring contacts texts to scale with an innovative use of images and demonstrates how a quality improvement methodology resulted in a more effective and efficient process. This paper also highlights the potential for technology to enhance care for at-risk youth and create more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable prevention strategies.

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OBJECTIVE: Safety planning for suicide prevention is an important quality metric for Zero Suicide implementation. We describe the development, validation, and application of electronic health record (EHR) programs to measure uptake of safety planning practices across six integrated healthcare systems as part of a Zero Suicide evaluation study. METHODS: Safety planning was documented in narrative notes and structured EHR templates using the Stanley Brown Safety Planning Intervention (SBSPI) in response to a high-risk cutoff score on the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (CSSRS). Natural Language Processing (NLP) metrics were developed and validated using chart review to characterize practices documented in narrative notes. We applied NLP to measure frequency of documentation in the narrative text and standard programming methods to examine structured SBSPI templates from 2010-2022. RESULTS: Chart reviews found three safety planning practices documented in narrative notes that were delivered to at least half of patients at risk: professional contacts, lethal means counseling for firearms, and lethal means counseling for medication access/storage. NLP methods were developed to identify these practices in clinical text with high levels of accuracy (Sensitivity, Specificity, & PPV ≥ 82%). Among visits with a high-risk CSSRS, 40% (Range 2-73% by health system) had an SBSPI template within 1 year of implementation. CONCLUSIONS: This is one of the first reports describing development of measures that leverage electronic health records to track use of suicide prevention safety plans. There are opportunities to use the methods developed here in future evaluations of safety planning.

Measuring safety planning delivery in real-world systems to understand quality of suicide prevention care is challenging.Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods effectively identified some safety planning practices in electronic health records (EHR) from all notes ensuring a comprehensive measurement, but NLP will require updates/testing for local documentation practices.Structured safety planning templates in the EHR using the Stanley Brown Safety Planning Intervention improve ease and accuracy of measurement but may be less comprehensive than NLP for capturing all instances of safety planning documentation.

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Suicide is a significant public health problem, yet barriers to treatment remain. To address barriers and meet needs, Congress designated a new 988 dialing code to increase utilization of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. As a result, call volume increased, and demand for community-based crisis services is expected. To examine the availability of community-based crisis care, we analyzed information collected from 2020 to 2022 Crisis Intercept Mapping (CIM) technical assistance workshops conducted with communities across the country. We found that training and implementation of suicide risk screening, safety planning, lethal means safety, and follow-up were limited and inconsistent among communities in our study. Collaboration was variable, impacting the ability of communities to support care transitions. Participants described multiple barriers to the routine implementation of evidence-based care and identified potential solutions for addressing them. Findings suggest a need for relationship building and targeted education and training to meet future demand for crisis care.

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Suicide in children is a significant and growing problem. The "zero suicide" framework (ZSF) is one approach to suicide prevention used in health services for adults and children. This paper reports on the introduction of the first suicide prevention pathway (SPP) based on ZSF at a Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) in Australia. It begins by describing the adaptations made to elements of the SPP originally designed for adults to meet the needs of children. Lessons learned in applying the SPP in the service are then discussed. The aim is to inform and improve practice in the use of zero suicide approaches in child and youth mental health settings in Australia and worldwide.

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OBJECTIVE: The authors measured implementation of Zero Suicide (ZS) clinical practices that support identification of suicide risk and risk mitigation, including screening, risk assessment, and lethal means counseling, across mental health specialty and primary care settings. METHODS: Six health care systems in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington participated. The sample included members ages ≥13 years from 2010 to 2019 (N=7,820,524 patients). The proportions of patients with suicidal ideation screening, suicide risk assessment, and lethal means counseling were estimated. RESULTS: In 2019, patients were screened for suicidal ideation in 27.1% (range 5.0%-85.0%) of mental health visits and 2.5% (range 0.1%-35.0%) of primary care visits among a racially and ethnically diverse sample (44.9% White, 27.2% Hispanic, 13.4% Asian, and 7.7% Black). More patients screened positive for suicidal ideation in the mental health setting (10.2%) than in the primary care setting (3.8%). Of the patients screening positive for suicidal ideation in the mental health setting, 76.8% received a risk assessment, and 82.4% of those identified as being at high risk received lethal means counseling, compared with 43.2% and 82.4%, respectively, in primary care. CONCLUSIONS: Six health systems that implemented ZS showed a high level of variation in the proportions of patients receiving suicide screening and risk assessment and lethal means counseling. Two opportunities emerged for further study to increase frequency of these practices: expanding screening beyond patients with regular health care visits and implementing risk assessment with lethal means counseling in the primary care setting directly after a positive suicidal ideation screening.

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The Zero Suicide (ZS) model is a promising approach for preventing all suicides across health care settings. ZS provides guidelines for health care systems to implement best practices in suicide prevention. Patients with substance use disorders are at increased risk for suicide, but no known research has investigated how to integrate the ZS model into addiction treatment settings. This Open Forum encourages clinicians and researchers to integrate ZS into such settings and to study its feasibility and effectiveness. ZS integration into addiction treatment may improve both suicide and addiction outcomes, but additional research is needed.

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BACKGROUND: Zero Suicide has been widely promoted as a comprehensive suicide prevention approach in healthcare systems, yet less is known about the barriers to implementing this approach in the emergency department. OBJECTIVES: This developmental evaluation aimed to assess emergency department providers' perceived knowledge and self-efficacy regarding suicide prevention practices, as well as apply the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to explore potential facilitators and barriers to implementing Zero Suicide and identify strategies to overcome barriers. METHODS: A sequential mixed methods approach was used, including a survey assessing emergency department providers' perceived knowledge and attitudes and semi-structured interviews exploring potential determinants of implementation. RESULTS: Survey respondents (n = 43) perceived that they have the knowledge and self-efficacy to implement clinical elements of Zero Suicide; however, interview participants (n = 18) revealed that some clinical elements are not implemented consistently and perceive implementation barriers across multiple levels, including limited training on suicide risk assessment and limited resources needed to engage and re-engage at-risk patients in their suicide care management plan and provide follow-up supportive contacts during patients' transitions in care. CONCLUSION: To overcome identified barriers in this setting, targeted implementation strategies are needed, including integration in electronic health record systems, leadership advocacy, and ongoing staff training.

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AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate the compliance of mental health clinicians in applying the Zero Suicide (ZS) approach to their clinical practice in a rural and regional health community setting. METHODS: A retrospective clinical audit of six mental health teams was undertaken at a single site. A clinical audit tool was developed and validated using a six-step approach. The data was extracted and analysed via descriptive and inferential statistics and compared to a specialised mental health team, experienced with the ZS approach. RESULTS: A total of 334 clinical records were extracted for January, April, August, November 2019 and June 2020. The clinical audit and analysis confirmed that the mental health teams are not consistently using the assessments from their training and are therefore not implementing all of these elements into their practice. This could have implications for the risk formulation and treatment for people at risk of suicide. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a validated clinical audit tool can be beneficial to establish compliance with the mental health clinicians and to determine any areas requiring further improvement. Further education and reinforcement may be required to ensure consistency with incorporating the elements of ZS into everyday clinical practice.

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OBJECTIVE: Implementing the Towards Zero Suicide (TZS) approach to suicide prevention in older adults requires evidence-based adaptation. This paper aims to highlight important differences and opportunities in healthcare service use by older adults relevant to implementation. CONCLUSION: The TZS approach may prevent suicide in older adults, but only if implementation aligns with systemic differences in healthcare utilisation by older people. Of greatest importance in older adults are (1) most mental healthcare is delivered outside of specialist mental health services; (2) physical conditions and disability are major modifiable contributors to suicide that must be addressed within TZS; and (3) older people have very low use of Medicare-funded psychological services. Primary healthcare providers, who may be seeing older people at risk of suicide, are often neither equipped to provide expert assessment and care planning for often complex needs, nor may see this as their role. However, they are essential in providing pathways to care, which may prevent suicide. Leaders must recognise TZS for older people will usually involve multiple transitions. This requires engagement of key services with clear roles, targeted training, rapid access to specialist older persons mental health support and development of a new TZS element: the navigator.

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This study explored the experiences of healthcare consumers who had recently attempted suicide, and their carers, following placement on a Suicide Prevention Pathway based on the Zero Suicide framework. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 consumers and 5 carers using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was applied to identify prominent themes and sub-themes. Three interrelated themes were identified. The first theme was 'Feeling safe and valued' with the associated sub-theme pertaining to perceived stigmatizing treatment and self-stigma. The second was 'Intersection of consumer and staff/organizational needs' with a related sub-theme of time pressure and reduced self-disclosure. The final theme was 'Importance of the 'whole picture', highlighting the relevance of assessing and addressing psychosocial factors when planning for consumer recovery. Overall, consumers and their carers reported a favorable experience of the Suicide Prevention Pathway; however, there were several areas identified for improvement. These included reconciling the time-pressures of a busy health service system, ensuring consumers and carers feel their psychosocial concerns are addressed, and ensuring that adequate rapport is developed. Key to this is ensuring consumers feel cared for and reducing perceptions of stigma.

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BACKGROUND: Suicide rates continue to rise across the United States, galvanizing the need for increased suicide prevention and intervention efforts. The Zero Suicide (ZS) model was developed in response to this need and highlights four key clinical functions of high-quality health care for patients at risk of suicide. The goal of this quality improvement study was to understand how six large health care systems operationalized practices to support these functions-identification, engagement, treatment and care transitions. METHODS: Using a key informant interview guide and data collection template, researchers who were embedded in each health care system cataloged and summarized current and future practices supporting ZS, including, (1) the function addressed; (2) a description of practice intent and mechanism of intervention; (3) the target patient population and service setting; (4) when/how the practice was (or will be) implemented; and (5) whether/how the practice was documented and/or measured. Normalization process theory (NPT), an implementation evaluation framework, was applied to help understand how ZS had been operationalized in routine clinical practices and, specifically, what ZS practices were described by key informants (coherence), the current state of norms/conventions supporting these practices (cognitive participation), how health care teams performed these practices (collective action), and whether/how practices were measured when they occurred (reflexive monitoring). RESULTS: The most well-defined and consistently measured ZS practices (current and future) focused on the identification of patients at high risk of suicide. Stakeholders also described numerous engagement and treatment practices, and some practices intended to support care transitions. However, few engagement and transition practices were systematically measured, and few treatment practices were designed specifically for patients at risk of suicide. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study will support large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of ZS implementation and inform recommendations for implementation of high-quality suicide-related care in health care systems nationwide.

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OBJECTIVE: This study tested the hypothesis that fidelity of clinics to Zero Suicide (ZS) organizational practices is inversely related to suicidal behaviors of patients under clinical care. METHODS: Using cross-sectional analyses, the authors examined the fidelity of 110 outpatient mental health clinics to ZS organizational best practices and suicidal behaviors of clinic patients in the year before a large-scale Zero Suicide implementation. Fidelity to ZS organizational best practices was assessed over a 1-year period with an adapted version of the ZS Organizational Self-Study instrument (17 items self-rated on a Likert scale of 1-5). Suicidal behaviors of patients were identified by extracting information on suicide attempts and deaths from a mandated statewide incident-reporting system database. Clinics were dichotomized into any or no suicide incidents during the year of observation. Logistic regression analyses were used to adjust for clinic census and population type (majority child or adult). RESULTS: The clinics (N=110) served 30,257 patients per week. Clinics' total average fidelity score was 3.1±0.6 (range=1.41-4.12). For each point increase in fidelity, clinics had a significantly reduced likelihood of having a suicide incident (adjusted odds ratio=0.31, 95% confidence interval=0.14-0.69). Exploratory analysis identified significant differences for seven of 17 ZS organizational practices, with the largest effect sizes for suicide-specific quality improvement policies and activities (η2=0.097) and lethal means reduction (η2=0.073). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support an association between clinics' use of ZS organizational best practices and lower suicidal behaviors of patients under their care. Findings also support the validity of the ZS Organizational Self-Study instrument.

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BACKGROUND: The Zero Suicide framework is a system-wide approach to prevent suicides in health services. It has been implemented worldwide but has a poor evidence-base of effectiveness. AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Zero Suicide framework, implemented in a clinical suicide prevention pathway (SPP) by a large public mental health service in Australia, in reducing repeated suicide attempts after an index attempt. METHOD: A total of 604 persons with 737 suicide attempt presentations were identified between 1 July and 31 December 2017. Relative risk for a subsequent suicide attempt within various time periods was calculated using cross-sectional analysis. Subsequently, a 10-year suicide attempt history (2009-2018) for the cohort was used in time-to-recurrent-event analyses. RESULTS: Placement on the SPP reduced risk for a repeated suicide attempt within 7 days (RR = 0.29; 95% CI 0.11-0.75), 14 days (RR = 0.38; 95% CI 0.18-0.78), 30 days (RR = 0.55; 95% CI 0.33-0.94) and 90 days (RR = 0.62; 95% CI 0.41-0.95). Time-to-recurrent event analysis showed that SPP placement extended time to re-presentation (HR = 0.65; 95% CI 0.57-0.67). A diagnosis of personality disorder (HR = 2.70; 95% CI 2.03-3.58), previous suicide attempt (HR = 1.78; 95% CI 1.46-2.17) and Indigenous status (HR = 1.46; 95% CI 0.98-2.25) increased the hazard for re-presentation, whereas older age decreased it (HR = 0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.98). The effect of the SPP was similar across all groups, reducing the risk of re-presentation to about 65% of that seen in those not placed on the SPP. CONCLUSIONS: This paper demonstrates a reduction in repeated suicide attempts after an index attempt and a longer time to a subsequent attempt for those receiving multilevel care based on the Zero Suicide framework.

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OBJECTIVE: The Zero Suicide Framework, a systems approach to suicide prevention within a health service, is being implemented across a number of states in Australia, and internationally, although there is limited published evidence for its effectiveness. This paper aims to provide a description of the implementation process within a large health service in Australia and describes some of the outcomes to date and learnings from this process. METHOD: Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services has undertaken an implementation of the Zero Suicide Framework commencing in late 2015, aiming for high fidelity to the seven key elements. This paper describes the practical steps undertaken by the service, the new practices embedded, emphasis on supporting staff following the principles of restorative just culture and the development of an evaluation framework to support a continuous quality improvement approach. RESULTS: Improvements have been demonstrated in terms of processes implementation, enhanced staff skills and confidence, positive cultural change and innovations in areas such as the use of machine learning for identification of suicide presentations. A change to 'business as usual' has benefited thousands of consumers since the implementation of a Suicide Prevention Pathway in late 2016 and achieved reductions in rates of repeated suicide attempts and deaths by suicide in Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services consumers. CONCLUSION: An all-of-service, systems approach to suicide prevention with a strong focus on cultural shifts and aspirational goals can be successfully implemented within a mental health service with only modest additional resources when supported by engaged leadership across the organisation. A continuous quality improvement approach is vital in the relentless pursuit of zero suicides in healthcare.

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BACKGROUND: The treatment of suicidal patients often suffers owing to a lack of integrated care and standardized approaches for identifying and reducing risk. The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention endorsed the Zero Suicide (ZS) model, a multi-component, system-wide approach to identify, engage, and treat suicidal patients. The ZS model is a framework for suicide prevention in healthcare systems with the aspirational goal of eliminating suicide in healthcare. While the approach is widely endorsed, it has yet to be evaluated in a systematic manner. This trial evaluates two ZS implementation strategies statewide in specialty mental health clinics. METHODS/STUDY DESIGN: This trial is the first large-scale implementation of the ZS model in mental health clinics using the Assess, Intervene, and Monitor for Suicide Prevention (A-I-M) clinical model. Using a hybrid effectiveness-implementation type 1 design, we are testing the effectiveness of ZS implementation in 186 mental health clinics in 95 agencies in New York State. Agencies are randomly assigned to either: "Basic Implementation" (BI; a large group didactic learning collaboratives) or "Enhanced Implementation" (EI; participatory small group learning collaboratives; enhanced consultation for site champions). Primary outcomes include suicidal behaviors, hospitalizations and Emergency Department visits; implementation outcomes include protocol adoption, protocol fidelity and barriers/facilitators to implementation. DISCUSSION: This project has the potential to have a significant public health impact by determining the effectiveness of the ZS model in mental health clinics, a setting where suicide attempts and suicides occur at a higher rate than any other healthcare setting. It will also provide guidance on the implementation level required to achieve uptake and sustainability of ZS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: N/A.

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INTRODUCTION: In behavioral health care settings, a workforce well trained in suicide prevention is critically important for behavioral health care professionals across different disciplines and service sectors who are likely to have considerable exposure to patients at risk for suicidal behavior. This study examined the types of training behavioral health care professionals received, their self-reported skills, comfort level and confidence related to suicide prevention, the association of types and length of training with skills, comfort level and confidence, and areas in which participants would like more training. METHODS: The Zero Suicide Workforce Survey was administered electronically to behavioral health care professionals at six behavioral health treatment centers with both inpatient and ambulatory programs in Connecticut, USA. Item numbers and percentages were calculated for 847 respondents with behavioral health care roles. The chi-square tests were performed to determine the statistical significance of group differences. Non-parametric sign tests were performed to determine the statistical significance of the collective differences in direction among items between groups. RESULTS: Suicide prevention training is associated with increased levels of behavioral health care professionals' skills and confidence, but one-third of behavioral health care professionals in the sample received no formal training in suicide prevention/intervention. Even brief training appears to have a positive impact on behavioral health care professionals' assessment of their skills and confidence. Prominent topics for additional training include suicide-specific treatment approaches, suicide prevention and awareness, and identification of risk factors and warning signs. CONCLUSION: Although behavioral health care professionals may often encounter patients at risk for suicide, many have not obtained any relevant training. The findings highlight the need to strengthen suicide identification, assessment and treatment within behavioral health care treatment settings as part of an effort to prevent suicide.

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OBJECTIVE: The prevailing paradigm in suicide prevention continues to contribute to the nihilism regarding the ability to prevent suicides in healthcare settings and a sense of blame following adverse incidents. In this paper, these issues are discussed through the lens of clinicians' experiences as second victims following a loss of a consumer to suicide, and the lens of health care organisations. METHOD: We discuss challenges related to the fallacy of risk prediction (erroneous belief that risk screening can be used to predict risk or allocate resources), and incident reviews that maintain a retrospective linear focus on errors and are highly influenced by hindsight and outcome biases. RESULTS: An argument that a Restorative Just Culture should be implemented alongside a Zero Suicide Framework is developed. CONCLUSIONS: The current use of algorithms to determine culpability following adverse incidents, and a linear approach to learning ignores the complexity of the healthcare settings and can have devastating effects on staff and the broader healthcare community. These issues represent 'inconvenient truths' that must be identified, reconciled and integrated into our future pathways towards reducing suicides in health care. The introduction of Zero Suicide Framework can support the much-needed transition from relying on a retrospective focus on errors (Safety I) to a more prospective focus which acknowledges the complexities of healthcare (Safety II), when based on the Restorative Just Culture principles. Restorative Just Culture replaces backward-looking accountability with a focus on the hurts, needs and obligations of all who are affected by the event. In this paper, we argue that the implementation of Zero Suicide Framework may be compromised if not supported by a substantial workplace cultural change. The process of responding to critical incidents implemented at the Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services is provided as an example of a successful implementation of Restorative Just Culture-based principles that has achieved a culture change required to support learning, improving and healing for our consumers, their families, our staff and broader communities.

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Suicide is a preventable public health problem. Zero Suicide (ZS) is a suicide prevention framework currently being evaluated by Mental Health Research Network investigators embedded in six Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN) member health systems implementing ZS. This paper describes ongoing collaboration to develop population-based process improvement metrics for use in, and comparison across, these and other health systems. Robust process improvement metrics are sorely needed by the hundreds of health systems across the country preparing to implement their own best practices in suicide care. Here we articulate three examples of challenges in using health system data to assess suicide prevention activities, each in ascending order of complexity: 1) Mapping and reconciling different versions of suicide risk assessment instruments across health systems; 2) Deciding what should count as adequate suicide prevention follow-up care and how to count it in different health systems with different care processes; and 3) Trying to determine whether a safety planning discussion took place between a clinician and a patient, and if so, what actually happened. To develop broadly applicable metrics, we have advocated for standardization of care processes and their documentation, encouraged standardized screening tools and urged they be recorded as discrete electronic health record (EHR) variables, and engaged with our clinical partners and health system data architects to identify all relevant care processes and the ways they are recorded in the EHR so we are not systematically missing important data. Serving as embedded research partners in our local ZS implementation teams has facilitated this work.

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Suicide is a serious public health concern in the US, especially for those served in outpatient behavioral health. Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in US suicide rates, and a significant proportion of those dying by or attempting suicide were treated in outpatient behavioral healthcare within the prior year. In response, the US Action Alliance released the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention in 2012, a key tenet of which is the "Zero Suicide" (ZS) model. ZS provides resources for administrators and providers to create a systematic approach to quality improvement for suicide prevention in healthcare systems via seven essential elements (Lead, Train, Identify, Engage, Treat, Transition, Improve). In this paper, we describe the ZS model, as well as our operationalization of the model in an NIMH-funded study in ~170 free-standing New York State outpatient behavioral health clinics, serving >80,000 patients. This study is the largest implementation and evaluation of the ZS approach ever conducted in outpatient behavioral health. Evaluation of ZS implementation in "real-world" clinical settings will provide crucial insight regarding broader dissemination and inform how to best adopt empirically-supported care for suicidal patients in outpatient behavioral health, thereby reducing tragic and preventable loss of life.

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Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 42,000 deaths in 2014. Although this tragedy cuts across groups defined by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location, it is striking that nearly four times as many males as females die by suicide in the U.S. We describe the current regulations and recommendations for suicide risk screening in healthcare systems and also describe the aspirational goal of "Zero Suicide," put forth by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. We then provide information about suicide risk screening tools and steps to take when a patient screens positive for suicide risk. Given the substantially higher suicide rate among males than females, we argue that it is important to consider how we could optimize suicide risk screening strategies to identify males at risk and females at risk. Further research is needed to accomplish this goal. It is recommended that we consider multi-factorial suicide risk screens that incorporate risk factors known to be particularly important for males as well as computerized, adaptive screens that are tailored for the specific risk considerations of the individual patient, male or female. These strategies are not mutually exclusive. Finally, universal suicide risk screening in healthcare settings, especially primary care, specialty medical care, and emergency department settings, is recommended.

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