Suicide Prevention, Part 2: Evidence-Based Practices, Cost-Effectiveness, and Future Directions

Despite clinicians’ best efforts at prevention, suicide rates continue to rise year after year, and many experts fear this trend may be exacerbated by the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant economic collapse.

This second installment of a double collection on suicide prevention begins with seminal publications on evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention. Included are post–emergency department (ED) interventions, brief cognitive-behavioral therapy and other therapeutic modalities, and technological innovations to improve information sharing on suicide risk. The next section demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of interventions that cannot only save lives but also reduce costs—some interventions are as simple as a postdischarge phone call from the ED. Finally, we present a range of opinion pieces on the future of suicide prevention from leading voices in the field, which, when taken together, make a clear statement: there is much work yet to be done to move the needle on suicide prevention.