In 1999 the Surgeon General proposed a national plan to serve as a roadmap toward developing a comprehensive national suicide prevention strategy. The key features of this plan were encapsulated in the acronym AIM, Awareness, Intervention and Methodology, to define the relevant components of a national strategy. Suicide prevention and prevention research have received substantially fewer public resources than many other medical conditions, and apparent public health risks such as bioterrorism. It is for this reason that a comprehensive, national public health based suicide prevention program is required.