Sept. 1, 2025
At VPQHC, we're focused on turning awareness into action through the intersection of healthcare, quality improvement, and suicide care.
Suicide touches every corner of our communities, regardless of age, background, or geography. But hope is real. Help is available. Healing is possible.
This month, we honor those we've lost, uplift survivors, and continue to dedicate ourselves to building systems that protect, support, and empower people in crisis.
The VPQHC team is leading this important work through a multi-layered, compassionate approach to suicide care and response. We’re working alongside healthcare partners across the state to strengthen prevention, intervention, and healing efforts in real time. This work is rooted in our mission to reduce harm and save lives by advancing data-driven solutions that improve healthcare quality in Vermont. Some key initiatives underway include:
Vermont Suicide Prevention in the
Emergency Department Quality Improvement Initiative
Our hospitals are often the first point of contact during a mental health crisis. Through this initiative, we’re enhancing suicide screening protocols, strengthening safety planning, and ensuring follow-up care is compassionate and effective.
Vermont Postvention Pilot Program
After a suicide loss, the ripples of grief can be overwhelming. Our Postvention Pilot Program supported both communities and healthcare providers in responding with compassion and structure. By addressing the trauma of loss head-on, we reduced the risk of additional suicides and helped survivors begin to heal.
2025 Suicide Care in Health Care Collaborative
Launching this year, the Collaborative brings together healthcare systems across the state to build safer, more responsive care environments for individuals at risk of suicide. A key part of this effort is equipping staff with evidence-based training programs, including:
· Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
· Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM)
· Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
· Stanley Brown Safety Planning Intervention (SB-SPI)
· Trauma Responsive Care (TRC)
By uniting providers in a shared mission and providing access to training opportunities, we're creating a more consistent and compassionate safety net for Vermonters in crisis.
Vermont Consultation & Psychiatry Access Program
VTCPAP improves access to high quality, evidence-based mental health care for children and perinatal patients in Vermont. To achieve this mission, VTCPAP offers suicide-specific trainings to medical and mental health providers, collaborates with statewide partners to promote resources and strengthen impact, and provides real-time consultation when suicide-related concerns arise. To enhance this support, VTCPAP has developed a dedicated Suicide Care webpage with up-to-date tools and information for providers and caregivers.
What You Can Do
While these systemic efforts are vital, each of us has a role to play in suicide prevention. That might mean checking in on a friend, reducing the stigma by talking openly about mental health, or learning how to recognize the warning signs of suicide. You don’t have to be a mental health professional to make a difference, you just have to care.
We want to highlight and acknowledge Suicide Prevention Month, but the work doesn’t end on September 30. Please join us in making a lifelong commitment to stand together to create a Vermont where every person feels seen, supported, and safe.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is always available. Call or text 988 for free, confidential support 24/7. For more resources, trainings, and educational opportunities, see the list below:
For training opportunities and resources:
Center for Health and Learning
For getting involved, resources, and real stories:
FacingSuicideVT
For real stories, resources, and getting involved:
American Foundation of Suicide Prevention-VT (AFSP)
Facing Suicide VT Events Calendar:
Upcoming Suicide Prevention Events/Training
For Resources, Initiatives and training opportunities:
Vermont Program for Quality in Healthcare
Together, we can save lives, through awareness, action, and connection.
#SuicidePrevention #988Lifeline #MentalHealthMatters #VPQHC
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