The Arizona Department of Health Services will distribute $1.5 million in federal grant money for youth suicide prevention over the next three years, spokeswoman Laura Oxley said.
Markay Adams, prevention coordinator for Arizona Department of Health Services, said the grant will be accepting funding applications from state programs as soon as the proper wording for the grant has been approved by the Department of Administration.
Once the legal framework for the grant has been established, the Arizona Department of Health Services will set up a Web site where organizations can propose services for youth suicide prevention to receive grant money.
This will be the second time the department has been awarded the Garrett Lee Smith grant, she said. Smith, the son of former Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, committed suicide in 2003.
The focus of this grant will be youth suicide prevention, targeting people 24 and younger, Adams said. In the past the grant focused on Native American communities with great success, she said.
Between 2005 and 2007, grant money was used to develop training programs, which led a historic low in suicide rates among Native American communities, Adams said.
The grant has been written differently than it was in the past in order to broaden the impact of the program across the entire state, she said.
It will now focus on Arizona as a whole, rather than individual communities within the state, Adams said.
Arizona Department of Health Services is looking to adapt to the needs of the state by allowing organizations across the state to apply for funding, she said.
“We are trying to build a safety network,” Adams said.
Nikki Kontz, board president for Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition, said Arizona Department of Health Services is working in conjunction with ASU and the Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition to establish training programs designed to train community members who are interested in suicide prevention.
“The grant will allow us to provide the programs for free,” Kontz said.
Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition will use the funding to establish youth suicide prevention conferences, referral networks and training seminars, she said.
Paul Christensen, center manager for ASU’s Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, said the portion of grant money it receives will pay for evaluations to measure the impact of the training programs.
ASU is in its second year of funding from a separate Garrett Lee Smith grant, known as the Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program, according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.
The program targets students, parents and others to reduce risk and promote protective factors. This is an expansion of a prevention program that now encompasses all four of ASU’s campuses.
Adams said there has been a reduction in the number of Arizona suicides in the past year, but that number still needs to be brought down.
“There are still a lot of people at risk,” she said.
Reach the reporter as rvanvelz@asu.edu.
