Resources for Getting Started with Firearm Suicide Prevention
If you’re new to the space of firearm suicide prevention or looking for resources to share with new partners, here are three resources— an issue brief, website, and training— that we’ve found helpful for getting up to speed on the basic and beyond.
ISSUE BRIEF: Firearm Suicide Brief from The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
This brief provides an overview on the issue of firearm suicide from a public health and equity perspective and contains foundational information about firearm suicide to help readers understand:
WHY IT MATTERS: the intersection of firearms and suicide and the unique lethality of firearms as a means for suicide
WHO IS IMPACTED: the prevalence of firearm suicide in the United States, geographical variations, and disparities across demographics
WHAT PREVENTION STRATEGIES WORK & WHY: how temporarily reducing access to lethal means by enacting and implementing policies, programs, and practices that create time and space between individuals who may be at risk of suicide and firearms, is likely to reduce suicide rates at the population level
EFSGV’s brief links to many relevant resources and contains graphs and infographics, like this one, available for your use.
WEBSITE: Means Matter Campaign from Harvard School of Public Health
The Means Matter website from the Harvard School of Public Health educates suicide prevention advocates on the importance of moving beyond focusing on why people take their lives to also looking at how a person attempts suicide. This resource describes why the means a person uses to attempt suicide plays an important role in whether they live or die. The Means Matter website provides information on why firearms are the most lethal and most common method of suicide in the U.S., and offers recommendations for prevention through “means reduction” (reducing a suicidal person’s access to highly lethal means such as firearms or medication) and developing partnerships with gun owner groups.
TRAINING: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM)
The CALM online course is a free, 2-hour course about how to reduce access to the methods people use to kill themselves. It covers who needs lethal means counseling and how to work with people at risk for suicide—and their families—to reduce access. The course is specifically designed for mental health professionals and others who work with people at risk for suicide, such as health care providers and social service professionals. The course is available to anyone free of charge and is self-paced (does not have to be completed in one session) and takes approximately 2 hours to complete .