The Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health (TIEMH) will oversee the evaluation of a statewide suicide prevention effort. The project will involve enhancing suicide prevention, intervention and postvention services, otherwise known as Suicide Care, by establishing the Zero Suicide (ZS) Framework and practices within the four pilot sites. The project will also establish for Regional Suicide Care Support Centers (RSCSCs), who will support training and technical assistance for the public mental health system.
TIEMH will evaluate efforts to support implementation of the ZS Initiative among local mental health authorities (LMHAs), including increasing regional and local workforce development through suicide care best practice and evidence-based trainings, with LMHAs acting as the RSCSCs.
The main goal of the RSCSCs will be to provide Technical Assistance (TA) and Training of Trainers (TOT) workforce development for the LMHA staff. TIEMH will collect data and coordinate with HHSC suicide prevention team (SPT) to ensure continuous quality improvement. TIEMH will participate in the development of an endorsement process, creating evaluation metrics for minimum to excellent standards of suicide care.
TIEMH will work with SPT and local pilot sites to provide TA in developing written implementation plan to include evaluation activities. TIEMH will support the implementation of identification and development of resources and tools; facilitation of planning meetings as related to evaluation activities; assistance with the development of effective suicide prevention policies; and development of implementation process and outcome measures for pilot sites.