MONTANA: Montana Communities Receive State Funding For Community-Based Suicide Detection and Prevention

Montana Public Radio

Montana has awarded suicide prevention grants to nine community organizations, health care providers, and school districts across the state. The $372,000 in funding was allocated in the state’s 2017 suicide prevention bill. Grant recipients may use the funding to scale up existing efforts or establish new ones, but all efforts must be based on peer-reviewed research or recommended by the state’s suicide review team. Billings Clinic will use its award to standardize suicide screening through the use of an app. This electronic screening tool will help identify patients at moderate or high risk for suicide and then refer them for appropriate care. According to Eric Arzubi, child and adolescent psychiatrist and head of the clinic’s psychiatry department, 20,000 patients will be screened in the next year. He said that the clinic seeks to apply research to the development of novel solutions. “We can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing the last 40 years because we’ll keep getting the same results,” said Arzubi. “So one of the things we’re trying to do is think outside the box, using evidence based approaches.”

Spark Extra! Learn more about suicide prevention in Montana.