WCMH – Columbus, Ohio Five Ohioans commit suicide every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and state officials are now working to reduce those numbers.
The Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, RecoveryOhio, and the office of Governor Mike DeWine are the authors of the most recent suicide prevention strategy.
This strategy serves as a road map for locating and treating mental health problems.
The first time a plan similar to this was developed was during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tony Coder, executive director of the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation. According to Coder, the most recent two-year plan incorporates fresh ideas while also building on the aspects of the first that were successful.
The new 2024–2026 strategy divides other objectives into fundamental pillars and keeps stigma removal as a key focus. These pillars include the creation of community structures, better access to early intervention and prevention, higher-quality post-intervention care, and the use of data to assess and modify programs in response to results.
The strategy will enable state agencies to accomplish a single objective.
According to DeWine, the state’s new 988 suicide and crisis lifeline has helped Ohioans’ mental health, but more needs to be done to make sure they know it’s an option.
“It is imperative that we increase the number of people who are aware of the situation,” he stated. We’ve truly entered the second stage of this. We’re almost there, and the advertising for this will really pick up.
According to the governor, just 36% of Ohioans are now aware of the crisis line; he and the state’s mental health agency want to raise that number.
