• Posted April 9, 2025

'Zero Suicide' Model Leads To Fewer Suicides in Health Systems

A health care program focused on suicide prevention has helped lower suicides and attempts, a new study shows.

The program, called the "Zero Suicide Model," relies on screening, safety planning and mental health support to help people at risk, The Associated Press reported.

The program included collaborating with patients to reduce their access to lethal means such as firearms and then following up with treatment. At Henry Ford Health in Detroit, where it began in 2001, there were no patient suicides for all of 2009.

Following on that success, researchers then looked at what happened when Kaiser Permanente adopted the same program at four locations between 2012 and 2019. 

Suicide attempts and deaths dropped at three of the sites, their review found. The fourth location already had low numbers and stayed steady.

The decline in suicide attempts was as much as 25%, said lead author Brian Ahmedani of Henry Ford Health.

“Over the course of the year, that’s up to 165 to 170 suicide attempts that were prevented at these participating health care systems,” Ahmedani said.

Results were published April 7 in JAMA Network Open.

Katherine Keyes is a Columbia University professor who studies suicide. She noted that most people who die by suicide visit a health care provider in the year before their death. Many doctors now ask patients if they have thoughts of self-harm.

“We are coming into contact with people who are at high risk for suicide. If we don’t ask them, we don’t know,” Keyes told The Associated Press.

Mike Hogan, who led mental health systems in Connecticut, Ohio and New York, called on goverment to lead the way.

“Complex health problems like suicide cannot be challenged effectively without federal leadership,” said Hogan, who chaired President George W. Bush’s commission on mental health in 2002 and 2003.

“This is a very important research report, confirming that reducing suicide among people in health systems is possible,” he added.

More information

The 988 Lifeline is available if you need emotional support.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, April 7, 2025