Oregon

Oregon’s suicide prevention activities are housed within the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Public Health Division’s Injury and Violence Prevention Section, and suicide prevention is a focus area of OHA’s 2020-2024 State Health Improvement Plan. Oregon law provides for a Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Coordinator within OHA to facilitate development of a statewide plan and to update the plan every 5 years (ORS §§ 418.731 & 418.733), and it also establishes a related Advisory Committee to advise OHA and consult with the Coordinator on updates to the plan and annual reports to the legislature ORS § 418.726). The most recent version of the Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan (YSIPP) covers 2021-2025, and while it contains some new and innovative pieces, it is firmly rooted in the work done for years by suicide prevention champions across Oregon. The plan is the natural continuation of that work and captures the lessons learned over the previous five years, laying out a vision for what else must be addressed to keep moving toward health and wellness for Oregon's youth. In addition, Oregon has also implemented two bills, H.B.3426 and H.B. 2757, which provided additional funding towards the 988 initiatives, and required 988 centers to receive specific training regarding certain at-risk groups.

The biggest development in the most recent YSIPP is the integration of the Oregon Suicide Prevention Framework, which focuses on suicide prevention across the lifespan, the long-term vision for suicide prevention in Oregon. The OHA suicide prevention team now includes five coordinators working in three scopes – youth suicide, adult suicide, and Zero Suicide initiatives in healthcare – who will use the framework's strategic pillars and goals to guide their work and develop specific strategic pathways and related strategic priority initiatives within their scope of work.