Connecting Prevention, Intervention, and Healing: A Comprehensive Suicide Risk Response Network for NH Youth - NAMI New Hampshire will implement a comprehensive, statewide youth suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention initiative with a focus on Strafford County. Utilizing NAMI NH's evidence-based Connect™ curriculum suite alongside embedded Family Peer Support, the project will expand system capacity, universalize early screening, and strengthen crisis transitions. This initiative directly aligns with NH's Keep Kids Home strategy to reduce institutional placement and improve community-based care pathways for high-risk youth up to age 24. Geographic Area Reached: State of NH with a localized focus on Strafford County (SC). Needs to be Addressed: SC is defined by economic divides, a public transit desert, and youth mental health infrastructure fragmentation. Emergency Departments face boarding bottlenecks due to insufficient community-based infrastructure. A lack of upstream, universal risk screening leaves youth experiencing acute environmental stressors undetected by the traditional safety net. Capacity Building Population of Focus: Frontline, youth-serving professionals across juvenile justice, DCYF, community mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals, and school districts. Direct Service Population: Youth up to age 24 at risk of acute suicidal crises, serious emotional disturbances, and/or substance use disorders. Characteristics & Service Needs: Youth in crisis, who are being diverted from psychiatric hospitalization or discharging back into the community from Hampstead Hospital or the Center for Life Management (CLM) crisis stabilization program. Service needs include safety planning, evidence-based risk re-screening, family peer navigation, and school re-entry support. The Connect™ Curriculum Suite: NAMI NH will deploy its nationally recognized, evidence-based suicide prevention and postvention training model. Direct Service Infrastructure: Subcontracts will embed an After Care Liaison and Family Peer Support Specialist (FPSS) at Hampstead Hospital and an FPSS within CLM’s crisis stabilization team to facilitate community reintegration. Policy and Protocol Technical Assistance: Provide targeted technical assistance to SC school districts and state agencies to build, formalize, and embed standardized risk response, safety planning, and post-crisis school re-entry protocols. Project Goals: Increase the capacity of youth-serving systems in SC to conduct trauma-informed, evidence-based suicide risk screening and safety planning; ensure at-risk youth and families transitioning from or being diverted from inpatient care have timely access to resources and community peer support; establish functioning risk response systems in SC schools, including clear referral protocols and structured post-crisis student re-entry support; reduce psychiatric re-hospitalization and support successful community reintegration through integrated clinical and Family Peer Support aftercare; build the capacity of NH schools heavily impacted by suicide loss to execute structured, evidence-based postvention responses to minimize contagion risk; strengthen the skills of educators, youth-serving professionals, community helpers, and youth to recognize and effectively respond to suicide risk; reduce youth access to lethal means by training frontline staff to counsel families on lethal means safety. Measurable Objectives Aligning with SAMHSA’s Strategic Priorities include: Screening & Response: Train 200 frontline staff in suicide risk screening and establish written risk response/re-entry protocols across school districts. Aftercare & Stabilization: Provide post-discharge aftercare to 100 youth at Hampstead to avoid repeat psychiatric hospitalization within 6 months. Prevention Training: Train 1,500 multi-sector professionals in suicide prevention and 150 frontline staff in Connect™ Lethal Means Safety. Postvention Planning: Deliver Connect™ Postvention Training to 10 school districts, with 80% implementing response plans to mitigate contagion risk.
