Friday, April 19, 2024
4/19/2024
The purpose of the Northwest (NW) Pennsylvania (PA) Veteran Suicide Prevention Program is to develop a multi-sectorial partnership to implement and evaluate a comprehensive approach to reduce Veteran suicide morbidity and mortality by 10% (on average) over a 5-year period across 15 Counties in NW PA: Erie, Warren, McKean, Crawford, Forest, Elk, Clearfield, Jefferson, Armstrong, Clarion, Butler, Venango, Mercer, Lawrence, and Beaver through the application of the CDC’s Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices. This Program will convene a multi-sectorial partnership comprised of federal-level entities; state-level entities; community-level service providers; and additional organizational experts in suicide prevention and program evaluation. Outcomes were selected based upon Programmatic goals, recommendations by the CDC in the RFA, and the applicants’ experience implementing similar public health programs locally across PA as well as nationally with the VA. Outcomes are broken up into short-term (increased engagement and coordination with stakeholders, increased use of surveillance data, increased awareness of existing Veteran risk factors, increased prevention activities, reduced gaps in policies, increased leadership capacity, increased involvement of targeted community stakeholders, increased number of prevention strategies, increased use of appropriate indicators and metrics, increased utilization of evaluation findings); intermediate-term (improved capacity to sustain the comprehensive suicide prevention activities and decreased risk and increased protective factors for suicide in Veteran populations); and long-term (reduced suicide attempt rate by at least 10% among Veterans in NW PA by the conclusion of year 5 of the Program and reduced suicide rate by at least 10% among Veterans in NW PA by the conclusion of year 5 of the Program). To achieve these outcomes, the Program will implement community-based, heal thcare-related, and upstream strategies and activities, including reducing access to lethal means, increasing gatekeeper trainings for professionals and community members, increasing community social connectedness, utilizing a Zero Suicide model, and improving access to care. PERU, in collaboration with Program partners, will conduct a rigorous evaluation of short, intermediate, and long-term outcomes to assess overall impact and disseminate lessons learned in coordination with the CDC and its partners.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
