Upstate Suicide Prevention Center

Mental illness and suicide rates have been steadily increasing across the globe. In the United States, there has been a 16% increase in the rate of deaths by suicide from 2011 to 2022. This increase has been particularly noticeable among adolescents and young adults, both nationally and within New York State. In 2021, AAP, AACAP and ACHA made a call for declaring a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.

The mission of the Upstate Suicide Prevention Center is to improve access to effective prevention and treatment strategies for individuals at high-risk for suicide in Central New York. Although the Center’s activities cover the entire lifespan, the current focus for the next two years is supporting activities focused on children and youth at high risk for suicide.

The Center was developed through a 1.1-million-dollar grant provided by SAMHSA. The Center has received additional funding for individual activities such as implementation of Zero Suicide activities from the Suicide Prevention Center of NY.

About the Upstate Suicide Prevention Center

The primary mission of the Center is to improve capacity and access to effective prevention and treatment strategies for individuals, who are at high-risk for suicide in Central New York. The Center has two broad goals:

Goal 1: Establishment of a seamless system of coordinated clinical care for high-risk individuals to promote access to effective treatment.

Goal 2: Dissemination of established suicide prevention methods and development of innovative new programs.

The Center engages in 4 broad activities:

Coordination of suicide prevention activities within the Upstate health system.
Coordination of suicide prevention activities between the Upstate health system and outside agencies.
Education and training in suicide prevention methods and
Research into new modalities of suicide prevention.

The Center works closely with other local agencies such as Contact Community Services, School districts, local and State Government to support suicide prevention activities in the community.

Current Activities

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Coordination between Upstate’s Suicide Prevention Programs

Current specialty programs include:

Youth and adolescents (Up to the age of 18 years)

Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program: Contact Information: 315-464-2479
Adolescent Psychiatry High Risk Program: Contact information: 315 464 3117
Child Psychiatry Clinic: Contact Information: 315-464-3165
PFP Kids: Contact Information: 315 464 3265

Adults (18 years and above)

Adult Psychiatry Clinic: Contact Information: 315-464-3165
Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program: Contact Information: 315 464 3265
Psychiatry High Risk Program: Contact Information: 315 464 3117

Additionally, the Center also serves as the coordinating team for the Zero Suicide activities at Upstate.

Coordination between Upstate’s Suicide Prevention Programs and other agencies

CONTACT Community Services
Onondaga County Department of Child and Family Services
Suicide Prevention Center of NY
Local school districts

Education and training in innovative suicide prevention methods

Training in Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy for clinicians working with individuals at high risk for suicide.
Center members are also involved in supervision of ASSIP therapists.
Education about suicide prevention to healthcare professionals.

Research into new modalities of suicide prevention

A Biorepository Initiative to Enhance Research into Biomarkers of Suicidality (PI: Jon Hess).
To investigate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and reproducibility of Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy (DDP) and the Psychiatry High Risk Program (PHRP) model of care (PI: Rebecca Shields).
Zero Suicide implementation – evaluation and challenges over a 3-year implementation period.
Understanding risk factors for geriatric suicide.