Suicide Prevention

Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have lasting harmful effects on individuals, families, and communities. Suicide was the 12th leading cause of death in Louisiana in 2021. There are many factors that contribute to suicide. The goal of suicide prevention is to reduce risk factors of suicide and to increase and promote resilience.

The Bureau of Family Health’s Violence and Injury Prevention program works to implement and evaluate a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention. These efforts are supported by CDC’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Grant. A key goal of this program is a 10% reduction in suicide and suicide attempts among populations that are disproportionately affected by suicide, including youth and veterans.

Core Functions & Goals

• Utilize data to understand contributors and track trends related to suicide
• Identify and assess gaps in existing programs
• Implement and evaluate evidence-based strategies within the CDC’s Suicide Prevention Resources for Action
• Provide reports, fact sheets, talking points, and other data communication products to share findings and recommend evidence-based prevention methods
• Grow and sustain partnerships across multi-sectors focusing on suicide prevention and improving mental health
• Coordinate injury prevention activities with key partners at community and statewide levels

Syndromic Surveillance

Syndromic surveillance provides public health officials with a timely system for detecting, understanding, and monitoring health events. Syndromic surveillance is the near real-time collection and analysis of pre-diagnostic and disease indicators such as symptoms using electronic data (HL7) mainly from Emergency Departments (ED). The purpose is to rapidly detect clusters of symptoms and health complaints that might indicate a disease outbreak or other public health threat in order to mobilize a rapid response. Syndromic data can serve as an early warning system for public health concerns such as flu outbreaks, and have been used in responses for opioid overdoses, e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury, Zika virus infection, natural disasters, and more recently for suicidal ideation and attempts.

Syndromic surveillance is the near real-time collection and analysis of pre-diagnostic and disease indicators such as symptoms using electronic data (HL7) mainly from Emergency Departments (ED).