Closing out Mental Health Awareness Month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new resource for planning suicide prevention campaigns. The playbook includes:
- Key Audience: Tools for identifying specific populations at higher risk and their networks of influence.
- Campaign Development: Steps to design effective strategies, craft meaningful messages, and promote behavior change.
- Behavior Models: Insights into frameworks like the Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory.
- Messaging Best Practices: Strategies to emphasize hope and resilience and use culturally relevant language.
- Evaluation: Tools to measure campaign impact and improve future efforts.
The latest data from the CDC show that rural residents are at a higher risk for suicide than urban residents and that rates of suicide almost doubled between 2000-2020 in rural areas.
Access the playbook here: CDC’s Suicide Prevention Communication Campaign Playbook.