Citation

Cerulli C, Winterfeld A, Younger M, Krueger J. J. Law Med. Ethics 2019; 47(Suppl 2): 31-35.

Affiliation

Catherine Cerulli, J.D., Ph.D., is a Psychiatry Professor at the University of Rochester. She is the Director of the Laboratory of Interpersonal Violence and Victimization and the Susan B. Anthony Center. She received her Juris Doctorate from SUNY at Buffalo School of Law, Buffalo, NY, and her PhD in Criminal Justice from SUNY at Albany, Albany, NY. Dr. Cerulli's work focuses on the intersection of law and mental health as they relate to suicide, homicide and domestic violence prevention. Amy Winterfeld, J.D., currently volunteers as the elected Senior Public Health Policy Director for the Colorado Public Health Association. She earned her BA with honors in history from Brown University and her law degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2018, Ms. Winterfeld led advocacy efforts that resulted in Tri-County Health Department, a local public health agency in the metropolitan Denver area, receiving an inaugural 2018 National Advocate of the Year Award from the National Association of City and County Health Officials. Monica Younger, M.S., is the Behavioral Health Coordinator for Tri-County Health Department. She received her Master of Science in Technical Communication from the University of Colorado. As the coordinator she helps administer the State Innovation Model Local Public Health Agency grant that was awarded to the Metro Public Health Behavioral Health Collaboration, the collaborating public health agencies from Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Jefferson, and the Tri-County jurisdiction of Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties. With over 18 years of experience in healthcare education, community mental health, and public health, she has also managed IT, quality, and accreditation efforts in these areas. Jill Krueger, J.D., is Region Director of the Northern Region of the Network for Public Health Law. She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa. Ms. Krueger works in the areas of mental health and well-being, rural health equity, and climate resilience.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/1073110519857312

PMID

31298117

Abstract

Suicide is a public health problem which will require an integrated cross-sector approach to help reduce prevalence rates. One strategy is to include the legal system in a more integrated way with suicide prevention efforts. Caine (2013) explored a public health approach to suicide prevention, depicting risk factors across the socio-ecological model. The purpose of this paper is to examine laws that impact suicide prevention at the individual, relational, community, and societal levels. These levels are fluid, and some interventions will fall between two, such as a community-level approach to training that enhances provider-patient relationships. At the individual level, we will review laws to improve screening requirements across systems. At the relational level, we note interventions with couples having conflict, such as protection orders and access to attorney consultations, which have been known to be injury prevention mechanisms. At the community level, we discuss legislation that recommends suicide prevention efforts for key individuals working as frontline providers in the medical and educational systems. At the societal level, we explore public awareness campaigns that target stigma reduction for those suffering from mental health burden and enhance linkage to care. The article closes with the discussion that laws are good, but their implementation is essential.

Language: en