A cascade of care model for suicide prevention

Suicide remains the second leading cause of death for youth aged 15–19 years in the U.S. From 2011 to 2018, suicide rates in the U.S. increased, whereas the rates in other world regions decreased. 1 In 2019–2020, rates continued to climb in several racial and ethnic minority population groups and among younger age groups. 2 The magnitude of suicide in the U.S. and related disparities underlines the need for a response that specifically focuses on addressing inequities, including implementation gaps in the delivery and sustainment of best practices to all of those who could benefit. Since 2001, the U.S. has had a national strategy to address suicide, yet >20 years later, it has failed to accomplish all its goals and did not specifically focus on ending suicide-related health disparities. In this paper, an alternative model, a suicide-specific Cascade of Care (COC) model, is proposed, to guide a more equitable, inclusive, and scalable national suicide-prevention response.