Texas Department of State Health Services

The Texas Youth Suicide Prevention Project (TYSP) will provide suicide prevention and early intervention activities statewide targeting youth at higher risk of suicide. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) will provide leadership for the TYSP whose purpose is to develop and implement youth early intervention and prevention strategies of the Texas State Plan for Suicide Prevention and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, and to monitor the effectiveness of the strategies. The goals of the project are to 1) provide information to the public about youth suicide, risk factors, and prevention; 2) train health, school and community representatives to identify and refer youth who are at risk of suicide; and 3) screen youth in military families and refer those at risk. DSHS will continue working with their project partners — Mental Health America of Texas (MHAT) in Austin and the Center for Health Care Services (CHCS) in San Antonio. MHAT will ensure that all statewide public awareness and capacity building grant activities take place. Activities include an annual symposium, bilingual education materials in a variety of media, prevention and postvention toolkit, nonproprietary gatekeeper development and training, model protocols, social marketing, and on-line web-based trainings. MHAT will also develop and maintain the website www.TexasSuicidePrevention.org.  Key numbers to be served in three years: gatekeepers for higher risk youth – 4,050; gatekeeper instructors trained 70; educational materials distributed – 142,700; symposium attendance 700. CHCS will be responsible for youth suicide screening assessment, referral and follow-up at Brooke Army Medical Center Child and Adolescent Pediatric Clinic and Fort Sam Houston Independent School District. CHCS began the first pilot study in the nation that focused on providing community mental health and suicide risk screening and referrals for youth in military families. Redstone Analytics will be responsible for data analysis and key aspects of the SAMHSA cross-site and local evaluation efforts. Key numbers to be served in three years: youth in military families -750.