Zero Suicide

"Over the decades, individual [mental health] clinicians have made heroic efforts to save lives…but systems of care have done very little." - Dr. Richard McKeon, Senior Advisor, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 988 and Behavioral Health Crisis Office

The Action Alliance is committed to improving suicide care in health systems across the nation. We do so by supporting efforts in the public and private sector to scale up implementation of the Action Alliance-catalyzed Zero Suicide initiative.

About Zero Suicide

"Suicide represents a worst-case failure in mental health care. We must work to make it a 'never event' in our programs and systems of care." - Dr. Mike Hogan

Clinical care plays a central role in the prevention, identification, and treatment of suicide risk. And yet, the care provided in clinical settings can often be fragmented, allowing people at risk for suicide to “fall through the cracks,” thereby failing to receive needed care.

In 2011, the Action Alliance formed a Clinical Care and Intervention Task Force, composed of leaders in suicide care, to identify ways to improve the quality of care for suicide risk in health care setting and systems. The result of their work was Suicide Care in Systems Framework, a report that established the framework for the Zero Suicide initiative.

Zero Suicide applies a quality improvement and safety framework to suicide care throughout the health system. Launched in 2012, the initiative promotes the adoption of “zero suicides” as an organizing goal for health care systems and seeks to transform suicide care through changes in leadership, policies, practices, and outcome measurement.

Zero Suicide implementation efforts are now led by EDC’s Zero Suicide Institute.