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Evaluation for suicide prevention programs
Suicide prevention programs are asked to prove that something did not happen. That is hard to measure, and the work around it involves people at the most fragile point in their lives. Our experience in suicide prevention, and in post-traumatic stress and depression, is extensive, much of it with veterans and about a quarter of it with first responders: one of our principals is a Marine Corps veteran who has worked with veterans for two decades, and the other worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs as an evaluator.
We have worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Movember, among many others.
What this work requires of an evaluator
- Safety first. Every survey and interview that touches on suicide has a protocol for distress and a route to help, agreed before data collection starts.
- Realistic measures. Deaths are rare events in any one community, so a sound evaluation measures what a program can actually move: training reach, screening and referral, help-seeking, connectedness, follow-up after a crisis.
- Safe messaging in everything that is published, including charts and report titles.
- Small numbers handled with care, so that no chart identifies a person or a family.
What we do in this field
We are a mixed-methods practice. The numbers show what changed and by how much. Interviews, focus groups and observations show why. We design both into the evaluation from the start, read each against the other, and report them as one story.
- Logic models and evaluation plans for SAMHSA and other applications
- Surveys of students, staff, service members, veterans and community members
- Focus groups and interviews with gatekeepers, clinicians, peers and people with lived experience
- Process, outcome and impact evaluation of training, screening, crisis response and postvention
- Quantitative analysis of service and surveillance data
- Data management that protects the people behind the data
- Expert data visualization, and final reporting in multiple formats: full report, executive summary, slide deck, one-page brief or dashboard
Funding and next steps
SAMHSA has forecast a campus suicide prevention round for FY2027. See our SAMHSA page, and the free evaluation plan for any application.
Planning or running a suicide prevention program?
Tell us who the program serves and what your funder expects. You will hear back within one business day.
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