Maternal Suicide

The following are resources for those working to advance maternal suicide prevention and support.

Suicide Facts Sheet: United States 2021

Suicide is a preventable public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. More investment in suicide prevention, education and research will help prevent the untimely deaths of thousands of Americans each year.

Maternal Suicide Awareness Campaign

September is Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month. Learn about 2020 Mom’s annual social media campaign and candlelight memorial vigil, held each September, and see how to get involved here.

Facts About Maternal Suicide

Citations for the Maternal Suicide Awareness Campaign Toolkit can be found in this fact sheet.

Past Maternal Suicide Webinars

Maternal Suicide in the U.S., The Latest Research & Data Collection Efforts

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Webinar link
Webinar slides

Maternal suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality. Despite common misconceptions, pregnancy and the postpartum period do not protect against the risk of psychiatric disorders or suicide. It has become increasingly urgent and important to normalize the discussion of maternal suicide to raise awareness and double-down on maternal suicide tracking and prevention efforts. In this webinar, we will cover:

• A general overview of maternal suicide research and data collection in the U.S.

• The difference between suicide risk and suicidal ideation, including racial disparities

• Maternal suicide risk factors

• Efforts to Standardize Review by Maternal Mortality Review Committees

PRESENTERS:

2020 Mom & Zero Suicide Institute Webinar - The National Zero Suicide Initiative: Levers for Maternal Mental Health

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Webinar link
Webinar slides link

2020 Mom and our partner, Zero Suicide Institute, learned and discussed the national Zero Suicide framework, a system-wide, organizational commitment to safer suicide care in health and behavioral health care systems.
The framework is based on the realization that suicidal individuals often fall through the cracks in a sometimes fragmented and distracted health care system. A systematic approach to quality improvement in these settings is both available and necessary.
Inspired by health care systems that had seen dramatic reductions in patient suicide, the Zero Suicide began as a key concept of the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and quickly became a priority of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), and a project of Education Development Center's Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The U.S. health delivery system was already struggling to effectively address and prevent suicide, now with pandemic stressors expected to increase suicide rates, health systems can take action by adopting the Zero Suicide framework and tools.

Moderator:
Joy Burkhard, MBA
Executive Director, 2020 Mom

Panelists:
Julie Goldstein
Director, Zero Suicide Institute

Edwin Boudreaux, PhD
Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, and Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts Medical School

Presenters:

In this webinar, we covered the latest on suicide prevention and facts about maternal suicide, including:

• A general overview of suicide and COVID related increases

• Maternal mental health statistics including maternal suicide

• General crisis prevention efforts

• Suicide prevention efforts

View presentation slides here.

Suicide Prevention Resources

• The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has resources to assist with setting and communicating policy priorities on suicide prevention, as well as infographics to share.

• Read about CDC’s suicide prevention strategic plan, grounded in data, science, action, and collaboration.

• Explore CDC’s Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policies, Programs, and Practices for strategies and approaches with the best available evidence to prevent suicide.

• The Zero Suicide Toolkit: a detailed guide to Zero Suicide implementation and strategy.

• The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS): a flexible therapeutic framework in which patient and provider work together to assess the patient’s suicidal risk and use that information to plan and manage suicide-specific, “driver-oriented” treatment. It is a philosophy of clinical care that can be used for a wide range of suicidal patients across outpatient and inpatient treatment settings and in the context of various psychotherapies and treatment modalities.

• Care Transitions Outpatient Health Care Self-Assessment from National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention

• The Outpatient Self-Assessment is a checklist designed to help outpatient behavioral health care systems assess their policies, procedures, and practices as they compare to the Best Practices in Care Transitions for Individuals with Suicide Risk: Inpatient Care to Outpatient Care. The results of the self-assessment will help outpatient health care systems identify opportunities to improve administrative practices and clinical care.

• Outpatient Care Transitions Action Planning template from National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. The Outpatient Action Planning template was developed to translate the results of the self-assessment into action steps that will incrementally improve their overall care transitions and patient care practices.

Guide on Suicide and Serious Mental Illness

Why Screen for Maternal Suicide Risk?

Screening for maternal suicide risk is critical in both saving lives and also in preventing unintentional harm to mothers and families. Given the frequency of unwanted “intrusive thoughts” during the perinatal period, which can involve thoughts of self-harm, it’s critical that providers screen for both ideation and risk.

Screening Tools

Several suicide screening tools exist; the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is robust in assessing for ideation and risk.

The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is a tool that can be used in many settings, including, community settings, medical, inpatient, and outpatient behavioral health.

The C-SSRS assesses the full range of evidence-based ideation and behavior. It can be used as an initial screener or as part of a full assessment.

Those who administer the screening for maternal mental health disorders may wish to use the C-SSRS if a person verbally discloses suicidal thoughts or answers “yes” to question 9 on the PHQ-9 or question 10 on the EPDS, for example.

Additionally, the SAFE-T Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage may be utilized to understand both access to potential deadly tools and protective factors.

Download the C-SSRS or combined C-SSRS & SAFE-T tools here:

Or you can create your own screening toolbox by visiting the Columbia C-SSRS Lighthouse Project’s website.

Free Training

Though training is not required to administer the screener, it can be helpful. Training provides an overview of the C-SSRS instrument and teaches how and when to administer it in real-world settings

Watch a Pre-Recorded Webinar

Watch a webinar on your own schedule by going to the Columbia University C-SSRS Light House Project’s YouTube channel and selecting an archived webinar. They are available in 30 languages and are less than an hour long.

Maternal Mental Health & Maternal Suicide Tip Sheet

This maternal mental health & maternal suicide tip sheet was developed in collaboration with and for the suicide counselors who staff the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This tip sheet can also be used by others providing support to pregnant and postpartum women.

Monitoring Federal and State Maternal Suicide Reporting Efforts

The blog posts below share our analyses of how the U.S. is progressing in its journey to report a national maternal suicide rate. Follow our blog by signing up for 2020 Mom's enews to keep abreast of the slow but steady efforts and progress being made.

Maternal Suicide: The US Should Measure What It Treasures

U.S. Has the Highest Suicide and Maternal Mortality Rates Among Wealthy Nations

Maternal Suicide Tracking in the U.S. – We’re Getting Closer

The Latest Data on Maternal Mortality (Including Suicide) in the US & CA

More Featured Blog Posts about Suicide

Suicidal, Twice – Without Warning (Psychosis – an Afterthought)

988 Designated as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline [fcc.gov]

Death by Depression, Not Suicide