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Suicide Prevention

 

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in Idaho, and the state continually ranks among the top 10 states for the highest number of suicide deaths per capita.

Suicide is a critical public health issue that can have long-lasting negative effects on individuals, families, and the community at large. Though the causes of suicide are complicated and determined by many factors, the goal of Central District Health’s Suicide Prevention Program is to reduce the risk factors of suicide and to increase protective factors that promote resilience, by advancing awareness and education on suicide prevention and fostering a commitment to social change.

 

How big is the problem in Idaho?

Suicide is a serious public health issue in Idaho that requires effective prevention strategies.

In 2018:

  • 418 Idahoans died by suicide
  • Idaho had the 5th highest suicide rate in the US (1.5 times higher than the national average)
  • Suicide was the 7th leading cause of death among Idahoans
  • 120 Public Health District IV residents died by suicide with a rate of 23.3 per 100,000 residents (4th highest in the state)

     

    Between 2014-2018, 125 Idaho school-aged children (6-18 years old) died by suicide; 31 of those deaths were among children age 14 or younger. According to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the percentage of Idaho high school students who seriously considered attempting suicide during the previous 12 months increased significantly from 14.2% in 2009 to 21.6% in 2019.

    Sources:
    2019 Idaho Youth Risk Behavior Survey

    This site is NOT intended to and does NOT provide crisis intervention. If you are in a crisis or have concerns about someone, call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

    • In Crisis | Thinking About Suicide

    If you are thinking about suicide, have thought about suicide before, or are concerned someone else might be thinking about suicide, please stop and read this. Central District Health does not provide crisis services, but help is available. You can reach out for help for yourself or to support someone else.

    If you are in crisis, you can call the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. You may also call or text the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-208-398-4357, or can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-273-8255. Press 1 for the Veterans Helpline.

    You could also get help by texting “HEAL” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or contacting Lifeline Crisis Chat.If you’re under 21, you can call Teen Link at 1-866-TEENLINK (6546) and ask to talk to a peer.

    If you or someone in your home is at risk of suicide or may be in the future, create a safety plan and reduce access to lethal means (objects or substances people could use to harm themselves).

    Know the Risk Factors

    Risk factors are characteristics that make it more likely that someone will consider, attempt, or die by suicide. They cannot cause or predict a suicide attempt, but they are important to be aware of.

    • Mental disorders, particularly mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and certain personality disorders
    • Alcohol and other substance use disorders
    • Hopelessness
    • Impulsive and/or aggressive tendencies
    • History of trauma or abuse
    • Major physical illnesses
    • Previous suicide attempt(s)
    • Family history of suicide
    • Job or financial loss
    • Loss of relationship(s)
    • Easy access to lethal means
    • Local clusters of suicide
    • Lack of social support and sense of isolation
    • Stigma associated with asking for help
    • Lack of healthcare, especially mental health and substance abuse treatment
    • Cultural and religious beliefs, such as the belief that suicide is a noble resolution of a personal dilemma
    • Exposure to others who have died by suicide (in real life or via the media and Internet)

    Know the Warning Signs

    Some warning signs may help you determine if a loved one is at risk for suicide, especially if the behavior is new, has increased, or seems related to a painful event, loss, or change. If you or someone you know exhibits any of these, seek help by calling the Lifeline.

    • Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves
    • Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun
    • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
    • Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
    • Talking about being a burden to others
    • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
    • Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly
    • Sleeping too little or too much
    • Withdrawing or isolating themselves
    • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
    • Extreme mood swings

    Safety Plan

    • Now Matters Now has a guide for creating a safety plan. This is something you can do before a crisis and can include your friends and family. Most safety plans are 1-2 pages. Click HERE for an example.
    • Means Matter – The Harvard School of Public Health has information on the most commonly used means for suicide and attempts. They also have recommendations for keeping a family member safe.
    • Follow-up Matters – The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers follow-up services to support high-risk callers, suicide attempt survivors, and referrals from third parties. This creates continuity of care after a crisis. Call the Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK (8255)) and request a follow-up call.

    Finding a Therapist

    If you have health insurance, check with the insurance company about what providers and services are covered. If your workplace has an employee assistance program, you should be able to get confidential counseling through it. If you go to a school or college with a counseling center or school counselors, they can help you find a counselor.

    Advice and Resources from Suicide Attempt Survivors

    Increasingly, people who have been at risk of suicide are taking leadership in suicide prevention. These resources can help you take care of yourself and connect you with people with similar experiences.

    • Now Matters Now is a support network for people who had suicidal thoughts and emotions and problems that felt unsolvable. They share their stories, including research-based ways for managing the most painful moments of life, and teach Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills.
    • A Journey Toward Health and Hope is a booklet that offers interactive, practical tools for recovering and moving forward after surviving a suicide attempt.
    • The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s page for suicide attempt survivors offers resources and self-care tips from other attempt survivors.
    • Voices of Hope is AFSP’s series of videos featuring those who have struggled with suicide: unscripted interviews with people speaking from their personal experience.

    Help Someone Else

    Looking out for the warning signs of suicide can help you determine if a loved one is at risk of suicide, especially if the behavior is new, has increased, or seems related to a painful event, loss, or change. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline lists the following warning signs. Warning signs may include but are not limited to:

    • Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves
    • Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun
    • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
    • Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
    • Talking about being a burden to others
    • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
    • Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly
    • Sleeping too little or too much
    • Withdrawing or isolating themselves
    • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
    • Extreme mood swings

    How can you help them?

    It can be scary when a friend or loved one is thinking about suicide. It's hard to know how a suicidal crisis feels and how to act. Call a lifeline or hotline center at any time for help if a friend is struggling.

    If you are concerned about someone else, below are five easy steps you can take to help. These five action steps for communicating with someone who may be suicidal are supported by evidence in the field of suicide prevention.

    1. Be the one to ask.
      • Ask the tough question. When somebody you know shows warning signs, ask them directly: “Are you thinking about killing yourself?" Take an online screening.
    2. Be the one to keep them safe.
      • Do they have access to medications, firearms, or other means of suicide? Ask if they’ve thought about how they would do it and separate them from anything they could use to hurt themselves. Make a safety plan with them. Use gun locks, drug deactivation pouches, and lockboxes. Time and distance between a suicidal person and their means can save a life.
    3. Be the one to be there.
      • People thinking about suicide can feel a burden to their loved ones.If your friend is thinking about suicide, listen to their reasons for feeling hopeless and in pain. Listen with compassion and empathy without judgment. Now Matters Now has videos from people who have experienced suicidal thoughts and share what individuals can do to help manage those thoughts.
    4. Be the one to help them connect.
      • Help your friend connect to a support system, whether it’s Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-208-398-HELP (4357)), the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK (8255)), the crisis text line (text “HEAL” to 741741) family, friends, faith-based leaders, coaches, co-workers, health care professionals or therapists, so they have a network to reach out to for help. The Idaho CareLine (2-1-1) is another way to find local resources.
    5. Be the one to follow up.
      • Check in with the person you care about regularly.
      • Making contact with a friend in the days and weeks after a crisis can make a difference in keeping them alive. Send a caring contact. This could be a phone call, text, email, or letter.

    Means Restriction

    All suicidal plans or attempts need to be taken seriously no matter the means. When we talk about suicide, it’s critical to not only ask ‘why’ but to also think about ‘how.’ There were 1,844 total suicides in Idaho between 2014-2018. The following methods were used:

    • Firearm: 60%
    • Suffocation: 21%
    • Poisoning: 15%
    • Cut/pierce: 1%
    • Fall: 1%
    • Other: 2%

    The type of means that someone at risk of suicide can use to kill themselves can often make a large difference in the lethality of an attempt. Firearms are used in suicides more than every other method combined and tend to be the most fatal of means.

    Should we only focus on firearms?

    No, but firearms are typically the most serious, fatal, and irreversible out of all the means. According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, having a firearm in the household is a major risk factor for suicide deaths. The use of gun locks and safe storage of firearms are effective ways to restrict a suicidal person access to firearms. Nonetheless, there are many ways that people can use as a means to kill themselves. Loved ones and/or household members of a suicidal person need to be careful with all means. Time and distance between a suicidal person and their means can save a life.

    Source:

    What if they don't want help?

    It can be difficult to know what to do when someone thinking about suicide doesn’t want help. The most important things you can do are to be available for when they are ready to talk and create a safety plan. Reduce access to lethal means they might use by locking up and safely storing medications and firearms. Call specialists at the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline or the National Suicide Prevention can help you find local resources for when your loved one is ready to seek help.

    Hotlines

    Resources

    Local Resources

    Coping with Stress Resources:

    CDC Resources:

    Other Federal Resources

    Additional Online Resources:

    • American Association of Suicidology (AAS): AAS serves as a national clearinghouse for information on suicide. AAS promotes research, public awareness programs, public education, and training for professionals and volunteers.
    • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP): AFSP raises awareness, funds scientific research, and provides resources and aid to those affected by suicide.
    • The Jason Foundation, Inc. (JFI): JFI is dedicated to the prevention of the “silent epidemic” of youth suicide through educational and awareness programs that equip young people, educators, youth workers and parents with the tools and resources to help identify and assist at-risk youth.
    • Jed Foundation: The Jed Foundation is the nation’s leading organization working to promote emotional health and suicide prevention among college students.
    • National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP): NCSP is a coalition of eight national organizations working to prevent suicide. NCSP’s mission is to advance suicide prevention through leadership, advocacy, and a collective voice.
    • Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE): The mission of SAVE is to educate the public about suicide prevention, eliminate stigma, and to support those touched by suicide.
    • Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) :SPRC is the nation’s only federally supported resource center devoted to advancing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention by offering the best of science, skills, and practice.
    • Training Institute for Suicide Assessment and Clinical Interviewing (TISA): This website is designed specifically for mental health professionals, substance-abuse counselors, school counselors, primary care physicians, and psychiatric nurses who are looking for information on the development of skills in suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and advanced clinical interviewing.
    • The Trevor Project The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24.
    • Zero Suicide: The Zero Suicide framework is a system-wide, organizational commitment to safer suicide care in health and behavioral health care systems. The framework is based on the realization that suicidal individuals often fall through the cracks in a sometimes fragmented and distracted health care system. A systematic approach to quality improvement in these settings is both available and necessary.

    Training

    • Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST): ASIST is a two-day, two-trainer, workshop designed for members of all caregiving groups. Family, friends, and other community members may be the first to talk with a person at risk but have little or no training. ASIST can also provide those in formal helping roles with professional development to ensure that they are prepared to provide suicide first aid help as part of the care they provide. The emphasis is on teaching suicide first-aid to help a person at risk stay safe and seek further help as needed. Participants learn to use a suicide intervention model to identify persons with thoughts of suicide, seek a shared understanding of reasons for dying and living, develop a safe plan based upon a review of risk, be prepared to do follow-up, and become involved in suicide-safer community networks. The learning process is based on adult learning principles and highly participatory. Graduated skills development occurs through mini-lectures, facilitated discussions, group simulations, and role-plays.
    • Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk: Core Competencies for Mental Health Professionals (AMSR): Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) is a series of one-day or half-day training designed for health and behavioral health professionals interested in the latest intersectional suicide care practices.
    • Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse Community Health Worker and Community Paramedic Training ModuleThe purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of behavioral health as a public health professional who promotes full and equal access to necessary health and social services by applying his or her unique understanding of the experiences, language, and culture of the communities he or she serves. Through this training module, students will be able to apply knowledge of Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse in order to successfully navigate patients throughout the healthcare system.
    • CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means Reducing access to lethal means, such as firearms and medication, can determine whether a person at risk for suicide lives or dies. This free online course focuses on how to reduce access to the methods people use to kill themselves. It covers how to: (1) identify people who could benefit from lethal means counseling, (2) ask about their access to lethal methods, and (3) work with them—and their families—to reduce access. While this course is primarily designed for mental health professionals, others who work with people at risk for suicide, like social service professionals and health care providers, may also benefit from taking it.
    • CAMS Training: CAMS stands for “Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality.” CAMS Framework™ is first and foremost a clinical philosophy of care. It is a therapeutic framework for suicide-specific assessment and treatment of a patient’s suicidal risk. It is a flexible approach that can be used across theoretical orientations and disciplines for a wide range of suicidal patients across treatment settings and different treatment modalities.
    • Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs: A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is an innovative, community-based approach to improve the outcomes of these encounters. Not only can CIT programs bring community leaders together, but they can also help keep people with mental illness out of jail and in treatment, on the road to recovery. That’s because diversion programs like CIT reduce arrests of people with mental illness while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that individuals will receive mental health services.
    • Idaho Lives Project Training: The Idaho Lives Project (ILP) is working to reduce suicide by bringing the Sources of Strength program to selected middle/junior high and high schools throughout Idaho. ILP helps schools implement comprehensive, evidence-based suicide prevention and wellness programs. This project trains school staff on how to recognize suicide warning signs and respond appropriately, offers schools evidence-based resources, and supports as well as provides postvention assistance for any sudden death in a school community. Additionally, ILP provides online QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) gatekeeper training, booster training, and advisor/peer leader training.
    • Mental Health First Aid: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues. In the MHFA course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help. MHFA teaches about recovery and resiliency - the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.
    • NAMI Ending the Silence: NAMI Ending the Silence is an engaging presentation that helps audience members learn about the warning signs of mental health conditions and what steps to take if you or a loved one are showing symptoms of a mental health condition. NAMI Ending the Silence presentations include two leaders: one who shares an informative presentation and a young adult with a mental health condition who shares their journey of recovery. Audience members can ask questions and gain an understanding of an often-misunderstood topic.
    • Native H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Endure): Native H.O.P.E. is a peer-counseling (youth helping youth) curriculum that focuses on suicide prevention and the related risk factors such as substance abuse, violence, trauma, and depression. This curriculum is a 4-day retreat that includes a one-day training of trainers. This is a strengths-based approach that incorporates culture, spirituality, and humor, as well as, awareness and education of the warning signs of suicide. The participants develop a strategic action plan of ongoing “booster” prevention activities. This curriculum has been endorsed by Indian Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Department of Justice as an effective culture-based suicide prevention program. This is also an effective approach to use with adults.
    • QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) - Gatekeeper Training: QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer — the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help. QPR Trainers in Idaho.
    • RESPOND: Partnering for Campus Mental Health RESPOND is an in-depth training designed to help faculty and staff feel more comfortable and better prepared to respond to students who are experiencing emotional distress by offering support but also knowing when to refer to a professional counselor.
    • S.A.V.E.: VA Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training: S.A.V.E. is a one- to two-hour gatekeeper training program provided by VA suicide prevention coordinators to veterans and those who serve veterans. Optional role-playing exercises are included. S.A.V.E consists of the following five components: (1) brief overview of suicide in the veteran population, (2) suicide myths and misinformation, (3) risk factors for suicide, (4) components of the S.A.V.E. model (Signs of suicide, Asking about suicide, Validating feelings, Encouraging help and Expediting treatment).
    • Say It Out Loud: Speaking with Teens about Mental Health: The National Action on Mental Illness (NAMI) created Say it Out Loud to get teens talking about mental health. Say it Out Loud gives adults the tools they need to hold conversations about mental health with teens. The toolkit includes: (1) a short film featuring three teens’ experiences, (2) a discussion guide; a narrated presentation for the facilitator, and (3) fact sheets and information about connecting with your local NAMI.
    • Shield of Care: A System-Focused Approach to Protecting Juvenile Justice Youth from Suicide Shield of Care was developed in the following stages: (1) The need for a juvenile justice-specific curriculum was established through consultation with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), (2) the Shield of Care model was developed by the Tennessee Lives Count (TLC) grant team using available research literature and TLC evaluation data, (3) contracted partners (e.g. curriculum designer, videographer) worked with the TLC team to develop curriculum materials, (4) content experts in suicidology and juvenile justice reviewed the curriculum, and (5) the final version was pilot-tested, yielding favorable program outcomes.
    • SOS Signs of Suicide Middle School and High School Prevention Programs SOS Signs of Suicide (SOS) is a universal, school-based prevention program designed for middle school (ages 11-13) and high school (ages 13-17) students. The goals of this program are: (1) decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression, (2) encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend, (3) reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment, (4) engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through “gatekeeper” education, and (5) encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health.
    • Sources of Strength by Idaho Lives Project: Sources of Strength is an ongoing, strength-based, comprehensive wellness program that focuses on suicide prevention but also impacts other issues such as substance abuse and violence. This evidence-based program, centered on hope, help, and strength, is based on a relational connections model that uses teams of peer leaders mentored by adult advisors to change peer social norms about help-seeking and encourages students to individually assess and develop strengths in their lives.>
    • Suicide Alertness for Everyone (safeTALK) SafeTALK is a half-day training program that teaches participants to recognize and engage persons who might be having thoughts of suicide and to connect them with community resources trained in suicide intervention. SafeTALK stresses safety while challenging taboos that inhibit open talk about suicide. The program recommends that an ASIST-trained resource or other community support resource be at all training. The ‘safe’ of safeTALK stands for ‘suicide alertness for everyone’. The ‘TALK’ letters stand for the practice actions that one does to help those with thoughts of suicide: Tell, Ask, Listen, and KeepSafe.
    • Talk Saves Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention: Talk Saves Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention is a community-based presentation that covers the general scope of suicide, the research on prevention, and what people can do to fight suicide. Talk Saves Lives is an American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s standardized, 45-60 minute education program that provides participants with a clear understanding of this leading cause of death, including the most up-to-date research on suicide prevention, and what they can do in their communities to save lives. Participants will learn common risk factors and warning signs associated with suicide, and how to keep themselves and others safe. The standard Talk Saves Lives presentation is also available in Spanish. Topics covered include the scope of the problem, research, prevention, and what you can do.
    • THRIVE (Tribal Health: Reaching Out InVolves Everyone) The suicide prevention project at the North Portland American Indian Health Board is THRIVE which stands for Tribal Health: Reaching out InVolves Everyone. THRIVE works to reduce suicide rates among American Indians and Alaska Natives living in the Pacific Northwest by increasing tribal capacity to prevent suicide and by improving regional collaborations. Staff provides programmatic technical assistance, suicide prevention training, and resources to the Northwest Tribes.
    • Youth Aware of Mental health (YAM): YAM has a non-anticipatory methodology that provides youth with a safe space for reflection, role-play, and discussion. Addressing everyday mental health, YAM invites the experiences and issues relevant to the youth present to influence the program in a slightly different direction every time. The YAM instructor guides the participants but does not present the youth with given formulas on how to solve their problems.
    • Zero Suicide: The Zero Suicide framework is a system-wide, organizational commitment to safer suicide care in health and behavioral health care systems. The framework is based on the realization that suicidal individuals often fall through the cracks in a sometimes fragmented and distracted health care system. A systematic approach to quality improvement in these settings is both available and necessary.

    Awareness

    September is National Suicide Prevention Month. All month, mental health advocates, prevention organizations, survivors, allies, and community members unite to promote suicide prevention awareness.

    National Suicide Prevention Week is September 4 - 10, 2022. It is a time to share resources and stories, as well as promote suicide prevention awareness.

    World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10, 2022. It’s a time to remember those affected by suicide, to raise awareness, and to focus efforts on directing treatment to those who need it most.

    #BeThe1To is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s message for National Suicide Prevention Month and beyond, which helps spread the word about actions we can all take to prevent suicide. The Lifeline network and its partners are working to change the conversation from suicide to suicide prevention, to actions that can promote healing, help and give hope.

    BeThe1To:

    • Ask: Research shows people who are having thoughts of suicide feel relief when someone asks after them in a caring way. Findings suggest acknowledging and talking about suicide may reduce rather than increase suicidal ideation.
    • Keep Them Safe: Several studies have indicated that when lethal means are made less available or less deadly, suicide rates by that method decline, and frequently suicide rates overall decline.
    • Be There: Individuals are more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful by speaking to someone who listens without judgment.
    • Help Them Stay Connected: Studies indicate that helping someone at risk create a network of resources and individuals for support and safety can help them take positive action and reduce feelings of hopelessness.
    • Follow Up: Studies have also shown that brief, low-cost intervention and supportive, ongoing contact may be an important part of suicide prevention, especially for individuals after they have been discharged from hospitals or care services.

    Language Matters

    Tips for talking about Suicide

    Instead of Consider saying
    Failed suicide or unsuccessful attempt Suicide attempt/attempted suicide
    Successful or completed suicide Died by suicide/suicide death
    Committed suicide Took their own life
    Chose to kill himself/herself Died as the result of self-inflicted injury
    Threatened Disclosed

    Source: NAMI: Your Language Matters

    Safe communication for suicide prevention:

    • Using language that is helpful and respectful encourages an environment free of stigma, where we can talk more openly and safely about suicide and its prevention. Words matter in a world where silence or insensitivity can make matters worse. The more we are open and safe in our communication, the more likely it is that people can offer or seek help.

    Storytelling | Healing, hope and help are happening every day:

    • Stories of hope and recovery have the power to help others through a crisis and dispel stigma and myths about suicide. By sharing our experiences, we all can change the conversation about suicide from one of tragedy to one of hope and healing. If you are considering sharing your story, we recommend that you use this storytelling checklist below to help determine how to share your story safely and effectively – for yourself and others.

    Idaho Databases

    The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a public health surveillance program developed and partially funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The BRFSS is designed to provide state and sub-state estimates of the prevalence of chronic disease, injury, health conditions, and health-related behaviors associated with the major causes of death and disability.

    BRFSS data are used to identify emerging health problems, develop and evaluate public health programs, enable state health policymakers to assess their own states’ need, and determine progress toward public health goals. Idaho has worked with the CDC to conduct the BRFSS since its inception in 1984. Learn more, HERE.

    Idaho Violent Death Reporting System

    The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is a comprehensive, state-based public health surveillance system, overseen by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which allows states to collect comprehensive data on circumstances surrounding violent deaths. Data are collected from three primary sources: the death certificate, the coroner’s report, and law enforcement reports.

    By combining information on a violent death from these three sources, the NVDRS builds a comprehensive picture of the circumstances in a victim’s life which have led to or contributed to their violent death. The Idaho Violent Death Reporting System (IdVDRS) collects data on all violent deaths which occur annually in the State of Idaho. By collecting data on violent deaths, IdVDRS prevention partners can create targeted, evidence-based prevention strategies to help reduce the burden of violent deaths in Idaho. Learn more, HERE.