Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

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Michigan Suicide Prevention

Funding Amount:

FY20: $870,000
FY21: $870,000
FY22: $1,003,000

Focus Populations:

Males 25+ years

Michigan’s Suicide Prevention Strategies and Approaches

Create protective environments

Reduce access to lethal means among persons at risk for suicide

Organizational policies and culture

Improve access and delivery of suicide care

Safer suicide care through system change

Reduce provider shortages in underserved areas

Identify and support people at risk

Gatekeeper training

Lessen harms and prevent future risk

Safe reporting and messaging about suicide

Examples of Michigan’s CSP-funded suicide prevention activities:

Promoting, sponsoring, and hosting gatekeeper trainings, such as Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), to community gatekeepers statewide, including:
- Working with the Michigan Department of Corrections to implement policies related to suicide prevention, and facilitate gatekeeper trainings among mental and physical health providers to improve response to the corrections population as well as correctional staff who have expressed suicidal ideation
- Increasing the capacity to host gatekeeper trainings by hosting “training for trainers” to create a greater number of available trainers statewide

Reducing access to lethal means among people at risk by distributing and promoting gun locks and safe storage messages at gatekeeper trainings
Launching and promoting Man Therapy Michigan, a website that serves as a mental health and suicide prevention intervention for working age adult men and provides information and resources for mental health, coping, resilience, and connection to services
Developing and disseminating safe messaging standards for reporting on suicide as well as safe messaging for social media, and working with mass communications departments at universities statewide to ensure safe messaging guidelines are taught and applied
Reducing provider shortages by developing and disseminating a telemental health toolkit that providers can use statewide to provide quality suicide care on virtual platforms for potential increases in access and use of telemental health services

Prevention in Action

Map of Michigan

“Michigan’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) program, Preventing Suicide in Michigan Men (PRiSMM), brings together key individuals, organizations, and stakeholders to form the PRiSMM Partnership, which works to prevent suicide in Michigan men, a population that is at disproportionate risk for suicide. PRiSMM includes organizations in the construction, automotive, farming, and television and media industries, as well as the faith community.”

Creating a Diverse Multi-Sectoral Partnership to Reduce Suicide Among Michigan Men

A key component of comprehensive suicide prevention is establishing a multi-sectoral partnership to help address suicide. Michigan’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) program, Preventing Suicide in Michigan Men (PRiSMM), brings together key individuals, organizations, and stakeholders to form the PRiSMM Partnership, which works to prevent suicide in Michigan men, a population that is at disproportionate risk for suicide. PRiSMM includes organizations in the construction, automotive, farming, and television and media industries, as well as the faith community. It includes individuals invested in reducing male suicides but who may not work in the suicide prevention field, as well as individuals working in agriculture, automotive, and construction industries who are able to inform the PRiSMM Partnership of gaps and barriers in suicide messaging. Many of the individuals involved in PRisMM interact with adult men and provide the perspective of Michigan men to help further the work of the overall project.

One of PRiSMM’s non-traditional partners oversees Michigan’s largest construction company. As a result of their participation in PRiSMM, this company plans to implement strategies to improve mental health and suicide prevention among its employees. This partner has also been able to provide insight on how PRiSMM’s suicide prevention messaging can reach Michigan men who work in construction.

PRiSMM shares data and information across a wide network. PRiSMM created a suicide prevention social media guide, a risk factors and warning signs guide, and data presentations to disseminate and inform the PRiSMM Partnership about suicide data and suicide prevention efforts that could be and are implemented in Michigan. PRiSMM also creates and disseminates a quarterly newsletter to keep the Partnership informed of data trends and prevention efforts. The PRiSMM Partnership has pushed a community-driven approach to implementation of suicide prevention efforts, and this approach is critical to the success of suicide prevention among Michigan men.