A Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Rural Primary Care Providers

Background/Purpose: This presentation summarizes the evidence base for suicide prevention in primary care settings, demonstrates a toolkit developed and tested for primary care providers in rural settings, and discusses challenges to implementation. Many people visit their primary care physician for mental health problems rather than a mental health professional. Primary care providers are uniquely positioned to provide care that reduces the suicide risk among their patients, especially in rural settings. Yet, primary care providers receive little reimbursement, support, or guidance for their suicide prevention efforts and face multiple systemic will be discussed. Methods: The development of this toolkit was encouraged by data collection regarding the challenges of suicide prevention encountered by rural primary care informants. Primary care providers in selected rural areas were interviewed to provide to capture the necessary elements of a useful toolkit. Results: This Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Rural Primary Care assembles best practices in suicide prevention in a pilot-tested package that can be practically implemented in typical rural primary care offices. Conclusions: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to 1) describe the rationale for initiating suicide prevention practices in the primary setting, 2) identify opportunities to implement tools presented in the workshop, 3) recognize systemic obstacles to implementing suicide prevention practices in rural primary care settings, and 4) develop strategies for overcoming systemic obstacles to suicide prevention in primary care practice settings.