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Taking Action

Planning and Implementing Your Program

Planning is intrinsic to the successful implementation of a suicide prevention program. The public health approach itself is a structured process that requires substantial planning - on how to obtain resources, when and where to implement interventions, and how to sustain the effort to create meaningful change in ways that will prevent suicides. These resources can help you with program planning and implementation as well as with longer-range suicide prevention strategic planning efforts.

Websites

Building a Successful Prevention Program
An online resource from the Western CAPT that provides a seven step description of how to build a successful prevention program. These steps include 1) assess community readiness and mobilize the community, 2) conduct a needs assessment, 3) translate needs indicator data into risk and protective factors, 4) conduct a resource assessment, 5) select universal, selective, or indicated strategies, 6) select scientifically-defensible best practices to implement, and 7) conduct evaluation planning, implementation, analysis, and use results for future program planning.

Community Toolbox
A website created and maintained by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas, in collaboration with AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Tool Box includes practical guidance for the tasks necessary to promote community health and development. Each section, including sections on Strategic Planning, Designing Community Interventions, and Implementing Community Interventions, includes a description of the task at hand; advantages of performing this task; step-by-step guidelines; examples; checklists of points to review; and training materials.

SAMHSA's Prevention Platform
A website created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for those working on issues of substance abuse prevention. It includes tools and resources in the areas of assessment, capacity, planning, implementation, and evaluation that are also useful for those working to prevent suicide.

Publications Available Online

Evidence-based Practices in Suicide Prevention Factsheets
These fact sheets describe many of the well-known practices in suicide prevention, with a focus on those practices that have been evaluated. Each program was formally reviewed by a member of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center staff and rated Effective, Promising, or Unrated, according to the evidence available for its effectiveness.

Getting to Outcomes 2004: Promoting Accountability Through Methods and Tools for Planning, Implementation and Evaluation (PDF)
M Chinman, P Imm, and A Wanderman. Santa Monica: Rand Health, 2004.
This manual presents a ten-step process that enhances practitioners' prevention skills while empowering them to plan, implement, and evaluate their own programs. It was specifically designed to help agencies, schools, and community coalitions improve programs aimed at preventing or reducing drug and tobacco use among youth. The manual includes text and worksheets and can be applied to any type of prevention programming. It includes chapters on needs and resources assessment; goals and objectives; choosing best practice programs; ensuring program "fit;" capacity, planning, process, and outcome evaluation; continuous quality improvement, and sustainability.

Northeast CAPT FAQs on Program Design, Implementation, and Adaptation
This series of FAQs was developed by Northeast CAPT, a project funded by CSAP to support the application of science-based substance abuse prevention programs and strategies at the regional, state and local levels, and enhance collaboration between and within each level. Many of the concepts and strategies contained in these publications can be applied to suicide prevention programs. The FAQs include:

Sustaining Community-based Initiatives
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Healthcare Forum partnered on these modules designed to help grantees sustain community-based initiatives. Program planning and implementation are discussed in Chapter 6, Module 2 (Implementing Strategies).