Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
Auggust 8, 2006, Vol. 06-86

SAMHSA to Partner with Suicide Prevention Action Network to Promote Public/Private Partnership to Curb Suicide

Assistant Surgeon General Eric Broderick, DDS, MPH, acting as administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), today announced the award of a contract to the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN USA), a national suicide prevention organization, to join with SAMHSA to establish and administer the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

The Action Alliance, a public-private partnership, is being established to move the goals and objectives of the 2001 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) from paper to practice. It will reframe the goals and objectives as measurable actions to be implemented by government, industry, general and specialty health care sectors, academia, communities, and consumers and families.

"SAMHSA's contract and collaboration with SPAN USA to convene and provide the infrastructure for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention mark a critical milestone in our efforts to prevent suicide," Dr. Broderick said. "The potential power of the Action Alliance is to effect change in workplaces and schools, families and communities to stop the clock that claims a person to suicide every 17 minutes. Our collaboration with SPAN USA will help focus the reach, the motivation and the energy of the Action Alliance to achieve each of the 11 goals and 68 objectives of the National Strategy."

The creation of this Action Alliance was one of the key recommendations of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (2001), the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) and the Federal Mental Health Action Agenda (2005), a recommendation echoed by Congress in 2005.

"Creating an Action Alliance is a significant objective of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention," said SPAN USA Executive Director Jerry Reed. "SPAN USA is pleased to work with SAMHSA on this important initiative to engage key stakeholders from the business, public, private and philanthropic sectors to work together to address suicide in our nation and to advance effective solutions."

With its establishment, and under the leadership of SAMHSA and the collaboration of SPAN USA, the Action Alliance will build the web of alliances, knowledge, policies and programs needed in communities nationwide to halt the preventable tragedy of suicide. SPAN USA will work with SAMSHA first to identify 25-30 Action Alliance members, representing individuals of all ages, ethnicities and races, spanning all walks of life and both the public and private sectors.

For more information about SAMHSA's work to prevent suicide, go to the SAMHSA website, www.samhsa.gov
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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.