Zero Suicides Is the Goal

Key points

The Zero Suicide model is an effective way for healthcare providers to prevent suicis.

There are seven elements in the model, starting with leaders who champion system-wide change.

Learning from failures can be as important as celebrating successes.

In 2001, the Behavioral Health Services division of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit implemented a program to end suicides among its patients. Not merely reduce the number of suicides, but end them.

Prior to that time, Henry Ford had a suicide rate that was seven times higher than the national average. Within four years after implementing the program, however, patient suicides dropped 75 percent.[1] That was good, but not good enough. The goal was perfection—zero suicides. And Henry Ford achieved it. In 2009, when JAMA