Data for building a national suicide prevention strategy: what we have and what we need

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S. As both the rate and number of suicides continue to climb, the country struggles with how to reverse this alarming trend. Using population-based data from publically available sources including the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the authors identified patterns of suicide that can be used to steer a public health-based suicide prevention strategy. That most suicide deaths occur upon the first attempt, for example, suggests that a greater investment in primary prevention is needed. The fact that definable subgroups receiving care through identifiable service systems, such as individuals in specialty substance use treatment, exhibit greater concentrations of suicide risk than the general public suggests that integrating suicide prevention strategies into those service system platforms is an efficient way to deliver care to those with heightened need. The data sets that reveal these patterns have both strengths (e.g., population-level) and weaknesses (e.g., lack of longitudinal data linking changing health status, intervention encounters, suicidal behavior, and death records). Some of the data needed for crafting a comprehensive, public health-based approach for dramatically reducing suicide are currently available or may be available in the near term. Other resources will have to be built, perhaps by enhancing existing federal surveillance systems or constructing new ones. The article concludes with suggestions for immediate and longer-term actions that can strengthen public data resources in the service of reducing suicide in the U.S.