HealthDay (10/15, Dotinga) reports, “Wide-ranging suicide prevention funding appears to have successfully prevented suicide attempts among young people in certain areas of the” US, according to a study published online Oct. 14 in JAMA Psychiatry. After comparing “466 counties” that started using funding from the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Program “between 2006 and 2009 to more than 1,100 counties – similar overall – that didn’t receive funding,” researchers found that “the suicide prevention funding may have averted as many as 79,000 suicide attempts between 2008 and 2011.”
Medical Daily (10/15, Cara) points out, however, that funding from the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Program “didn’t appear to have any influence on the suicide attempt rates of people older than 23; nor was there a sustained longer-term difference in attempt rates.”
Related Links:
— “Youth Suicide Prevention Program Shows Promise,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, October 14, 2015.