Community-driven strategies for implementing suicide prevention education in jails.

Abstract

Suicide comprises nearly one third of jail deaths, but strategies for effectively supporting implementation of suicide prevention education in jails are understudied. Here, we aimed to identify and pilot strategies to promote uptake of a brief suicide prevention education program, Talk Saves Lives: Corrections (TSL-C), developed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in jails. Applying community-engaged dissemination and implementation principles, we conducted a statewide survey of jail leadership in a mid-Southern state (N = 65 jails) to (a) understand the preimplementation landscape of suicide prevention education efforts and (b) assess the perceived feasibility and helpfulness of possible strategies to promote TSL-C uptake. With continuous input from our community advisory board, we then partnered with two jails to select and tailor implementation strategies via a rigorous Evidence-Based Quality Improvement process and pilot TSL-C. Statewide survey results revealed insufficient rates of foundational (50.8%) and refresher (27.7%) suicide prevention training; however, receptivity to proposed implementation strategies was very high. Through the Evidence-Based Quality Improvement process, partnering sites selected both overlapping (i.e., identifying local champions, tailoring materials, and providing train-the-trainer training) and divergent strategies. A primary difference between the sites was their implementation teams' structure. Both sites successfully piloted the TSL-C program facility-wide by the end of the study period, though one site significantly revised their implementation plan due to staffing shortages and financial barriers. Together, our results indicate that although carceral settings face barriers to implementing and sustaining health-focused interventions, community-developed implementation strategies can help support uptake in these underresourced but high-need contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).