Source: Cardinal Health Website
The Cardinal Health Foundation has awarded more than $2.6 million in grants to help prevent suicide and increase access to mental health services.
Suicide is a growing public health concern in this country.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 48,000 people died by suicide in 2018 — making it the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.
- In fact, suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 10 and 34,
- and the fourth leading cause of death among those between the ages of 35 and 54.
The Cardinal Health Foundation grants will:
- Launch a national Zero Suicide Collaborative, which will include six children’s hospitals in Ohio, and will be guided by the Zero Suicide Institute;
- Expand access to community and in-school mental health services in rural Southeast Ohio, where resources for children with mental health issues are limited.
The Cardinal Health Foundation Zero Suicide Collaborative
The Zero Suicide Collaborative includes 17 adult and children’s hospitals across the country.
Each health system has been awarded two-year, $100,000 grants to participate in the collaborative, and will receive comprehensive training and expert consultation from the Zero Suicide Institute.
The Zero Suicide Institute believes that suicide deaths for individuals under the care of health and behavioral health systems are preventable.
Its framework is based on the realization that those at risk of suicide often fall through the cracks in a fast-paced and sometimes fragmented healthcare system. A systematic approach to quality improvement in these systems is both available and necessary to save lives.
Zero Suicide provides such an approach: Its implementation requires transformative change that cannot be borne solely by the practitioners providing clinical care.
The collaborative includes a partnership with the State of Ohio and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA) focused on six children’s hospitals that are implementing system-wide and community-based efforts to prevent suicide.
Through an initiative of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is making an investment in youth suicide prevention. The Cardinal Health Foundation is amplifying that work to create a fully integrated suicide prevention model from hospitals to home.
Each of the Zero Suicide Collaborative grantees is committed to patient safety, the safety and support of clinical staff, and to supporting a community focus on suicide prevention. Through the collaborative, grantees will track and share learnings and best practices with each other, with the Zero Suicide Institute and with Cardinal Health.
Increasing access to mental health services for children
The Cardinal Health Foundation has also awarded $700,000 to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio to expand mental health services in schools in Athens and Jackson Counties in Southeast Ohio, an area with particularly limited access.
Through this grant-funded work, Nationwide Children’s Hospital experts will partner with school districts and implement prevention programming for students in pre-k — 12th grades, and work with local school and community-based primary care providers to enhance their knowledge and expertise in treating mental health issues. Nationwide Children’s Hospital staff will also partner with local mental health providers to ensure quality programming and will provide telepsychiatry assistance for children requiring higher levels of care.
This is a pilot program that has the potential to serve as a model for capacity building in other hard-to-reach regions around the country.
Through all of these grants, the Cardinal Health Foundation supports work aimed at having a significant impact on reducing suicides and increasing access to the mental health services that children and adults need.
Cardinal Health Foundation Zero Suicide Collaborative grantees
- Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation, Chicago, Ill.
- Arkansas Children’s Foundation, Little Rock, Ark.
- Aurora Health Care, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis.
- Centura Health — Mercy Regional Medical Center, Durango, Colo
- The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.
- Dell Medical School, UT Health Austin, Austin, Texas
- Dignity Health Foundation — East Valley, Chandler, Ariz.
- The Ohio State University Foundation, Columbus, Ohio
- OhioHealth Foundation, Columbus, Ohio
- Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, N.Y.
- Weston County Health Services, Newcastle, Wyo.
- Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA) Foundation, for OCHA member hospitals:
- Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati
- Dayton Children’s Hospital, Dayton
- Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus
- ProMedica Russel J. Ebeid Children’s Hospital, Toledo
- University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Cleveland
