This is the combined effort of clinicians, health and mental health professionals, professors, psychiatrists, medical doctors, nurses, researchers, human service workers in criminal justice, schools, clergy, faith-based communities, aging, youth, firearm safety, law enforcement and coroners, representatives from special populations, professional organizations and survivors, families and friends who have lost someone to suicide.
Coalition meeting in March, 2006
Illinois Suicide Prevention: Introduction to the Strategic Plan
"Suicide is not chosen; it occurs when pain exceeds resources for dealing with pain."
--Dr. David Conroy
This report, Suicide in Illinois: 2003, summarizes the process and recommendations of the Illinois State Strategic Suicide Prevention Planning Committee, a subcommittee of the Illinois Injury and Violence Prevention Coalition convened by Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Injury and Tobacco Use Prevention.
Members of this committee are professionals from various disciplines of health care and caregiving who have volunteered their time to study and draft this plan between September 2002 and December 2003. The National Suicide Prevention Resource Center is assisting in the editing and finalization of the report.
Suicide is recognized to be a "chronic epidemic" ---a death that outnumbers homicide and deaths by impaired driving yet hidden by stigma and myth and shame. The stigma attributed to suicide have served to restrict prevention and intervention efforts in the past because of the notion that "to say the word ‘suicide’ would cause it to happen." Now, experts agree that----
Suicide is preventable ---- by talking and educating about this tragedy, rather than hiding it.
The recommendations in the Strategic Plan are comprehensive, complex and ambitious because the scope of the suicide problem in Illinois demands the strongest and most professional response.
The Illinois Strategic Suicide Prevention Plan
includes information and special data sections on:
Aging
Youth
Special populations and ethnic backgrounds
Education and advocacy
Access to health care
After-care following a suicide
Homeless
Data Collection
First responders and crisis intervention
Incarcerated populations
Military
Men
Juvenile Justice
Schools
Professional training
Substance Abuse
The church and clergy
Family violence
Mentally and medically ill
The plan will be available after January 2006.
Coalition members use video conferencing to join forces with North, Central, and Southern Illinois
