Initiative aims to reduce NC suicides
New Carolina Across 100 program comes in response to increases in rates of suicide and mental health crises.
This summer, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina Across 100 initiative launched a new program with the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute to lower the number of suicides in North Carolina.
The program, “Our State, Our Wellbeing,” comes in response to alarming increases in rates of suicide and mental health crises in recent years. From 2004 to 2020, the number of suicides per 100,000 residents in North Carolina grew by more than 10%. More recently, the disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic increased risk factors related to mental and behavioral health.
“Every suicide is a tragic event,” Anita Brown-Graham, Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government, said when the initiative launched in June. “Our goal with this project is to help North Carolina communities get more involved in prevention efforts.”
Over the next year, Carolina Across 100 and the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute will bring together local groups to enact suicide prevention strategies and improve mental health resources.
In August, 15 teams in North Carolina were selected to participate in the initiative. The selected teams include health providers, local government agencies, educational institutions, faith-based groups and civic and nonprofit organizations from 24 counties across North Carolina. The teams represent urban, suburban and rural areas covering every region of North Carolina.
“By bringing experienced local partners together to share ideas and identify next steps, we will be better positioned to design effective strategies that are localized and sustainable,” said Patrick Sullivan, director of the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute.
Teams met for a kick-off at the end of August and will meet for their first forum at UNC-Chapel Hill in late October. The 15 teams will continue to meet regularly in Chapel Hill for a series of forums to develop goals to improve mental health supports and reduce suicides. These forums will offer the teams the opportunity to learn from one another and from experts in community collaboration, public health and suicide prevention. The Carolina Across 100 team and UNC Suicide Prevention Institute will also provide coaching, technical assistance and additional resources to the teams.
“The University is eager to bring communities together from across North Carolina to enhance our work and foster collaboration to improve mental health and reduce suicide in our state,” said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz. “Carolina Across 100’s work will build partnerships and create new opportunities for sharing ideas to address this critical issue.”
Carolina Across 100 is a five-year initiative, coordinated by the ncIMPACT Initiative, seeking to support community-driven recovery and build sustainable efforts in all 100 counties by providing human resources, data insights, coaching, facilitation, coordination efforts and program design. “Our State, Our Wellbeing” is the second major program in this larger initiative, following the “Our State, Our Work” program started in 2022.
The UNC Suicide Prevention Institute began in July 2022 to research and deploy scalable, evidence-informed prevention interventions for suicide. Housed at the UNC School of Medicine, the institute has more than 40 researchers across a variety of disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, social work and education.
The UNC School of Government launchedncIMPACTas a statewide initiative in 2017 to help local communities use data and evidence to improve conditions and inform decision making.
