State Suicide Prevention Network

To build the Statewide suicide Prevention Network, BASCIA will sponsor quarterly regional meetings to develop and refine prevention practices and reduce suicide in the communities we serve. The issues we will address include:

• Restricting access to lethal means
• Community- wide suicide prevention education
• Community specific suicide prevention education
• Risk assessment and contagion
• Facts and myths about suicide
• Early intervention

Our first meeting will be February 24th in San Jose. Click Here for a meeting outline and agenda.

Subsequent meetings will be held throughout the region and focus on specific topics or populations where suicide is a special concern. All our meetings will be allow online attendance. In addition, if you miss one, a recorded version of each session will be posted two days after the meeting. Joining one of our meetings requires preregistration and enrolls you in the Statewide Suicide Prevention Network. Click Here to register.

Our Region
Our region includes the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterrey Bay Area and Lake and Mendocino Counties in the north.

Background
The five BASCIA agencies, along with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services' Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles, The Effort in Sacramento, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Services of Yolo County and Help, Inc. of Shasta County are leading the expansion of suicide prevention efforts in California, thanks to the California Mental Health
Services Authority (CalMHSA) (http://www.calmhsa.org).

The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) is an organization of county governments working to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families and communities. CalMHSA operates services and education programs on a statewide, regional and local basis.

This consortium of California crisis centers will organize regional suicide prevention task forces that will collectively form the California Suicide Prevention Network (CSPN). 
 With representatives from colleges, school districts, community and faith-based groups, federal and municipal agencies, and medical centers, these task forces will come up with concrete steps to reduce the risk of suicide locally and then share their best practices with others across the State and nation. The consortium will also identify the State's gaps in services and populations that have been overlooked and under-served.