Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health launches new board for suicide prevention

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has implemented a new private board that reviews local suicides to inform prevention strategies.

The Suicide Fatality Review Board of Douglas County is charged with strengthening community responses and service systems, according to a news release.

Dee Kinard, informatics manager at LDCPH, led efforts over the past several years to localize a strategy modeled after one an epidemiologist in Oregon built. 

The SFRB aims to understand factors surrounding people who died by suicide in Douglas County, with their families’ permission.

Board members are first responders as well as staff from health care organizations, crisis services and other partners. After obtaining consent from next of kin, they exchange and discuss any records their agencies have of the deceased person, according to the release.

“They might be able to share just a few more details that no one else knows,” Kinard said in the release. “We get a more complete picture of who this person was, like their strengths, their supports, and what they struggled with. From that, we can distill the risk factors and protective factors.”

Risk factors are circumstances that exacerbate the likelihood of dying by suicide, such as behavioral health concerns and life stressors. Identifying protective factors, such as supportive relationships and strong community ties, will also inform the board’s prevention work.

Kinard was introduced to the concept of a SFRB when she met Kimberly Repp, chief epidemiologist for Washington County Public Health in Oregon, at a 2019 conference. Repp is credited with developing the innovative tool in her county and serves as a consultant to Douglas County’s board.

Will Hallagin, Douglas County coroner scene coordinator, began conducting death investigations as a former Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical paramedic, according to the release. In his current job, he meets families at the onset of their grief.

Hallagin said the SFRB is another opportunity to combat a high suicide rate. LDCPH in September reported that suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 44 in Douglas County. From 2021 to 2023, suicide accounted for 80% of all violent deaths and 72% of all firearm-related deaths in the county, according to the brief.

“Having seen firsthand how suicide affects families, any opportunity to prevent a death by suicide is a very worthy undertaking,” Hallagin said in the release. “I am hopeful that Douglas County will see results that are similar to those in other areas that have implemented SFRBs.”

Board meetings will be in secure locations with strict confidentiality protections, including a secure portal for members to review information beforehand, according to the release. The purpose of looking at individual cases is to identify systemic issues, so personal identifiers will not be collected.

The review board will ultimately propose evidence-based prevention strategies to the SFRB Policy Group. Policy group members are organizational staff from the same agencies represented on the review board but who have the authority to put new strategies into effect.

This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.

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