More than 38,000 people died from suicide in the United States in 2010. In any given year there are generally a third more suicides than homicides yet public perspective and media attention makes it seem that there are far more homicides. Combined with ongoing stigma, suicide deaths appear to be far removed from spotlight. Data from NVDRS has helped to turn the tide. Created in 2002, the NVDRS is a surveillance system currently in 18 states that collects data on violent deaths including details about the circumstances of the deaths. The system includes information about child maltreatment (or child abuse) fatalities, intimate partner homicides, all other homicides, suicides, deaths where individuals are killed by law enforcement in the line of duty, unintentional firearm injury deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent.

— An overview of the CDC NVDRS suicide prevention research

— State examples of using VDRS suicide data and creating partnerships

— An example of academic and community partners using NVDRS suicide data.

Presentation by Alex Crosby, CDC NVDRS Presentation by Deborah Hull-Jilly, Alaska VDRS Program Presentation by Sheryl Brown, Oklahoma VDRS Program Presentation by Robert Bossuarte, Injury Control Research Center on Suicide (University of Rochester) The webinar was moderated by Paul Bonta, National Violence Prevention Network, American College of Preventive Medicine. The NVDRS Special Interest Group is chaired by Scott Proescholdbell (North Carolina VDRS) and serves as a forum for people and partners interested in using NVDRS to prevent violent deaths.

Continuing education credits are offered for this training for Safe States members. These include credits for individuals who are Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified in Public Health (CPH). 

The video in this self-study may not work properly as appropriate software may no longer be available to support it – causing an error stating “Missing codec – This item was encoded in a format that’s not supported”. Audio and Powerpoint slides are still available and meet the requirements for receiving CHES and CPH credits. If you experience issues, please direct questions to info@safestates.org.