The Federal Department of Health and Human

Services has awarded a three-year $2.5 million grant to the

Education Development Center in Newton, MA to

establish a national suicide prevention resource center to

provide information about and assistance in implementing

suicide-prevention programs.

"I anticipate there will be a strong partnership and a

contractual relationship with the National Hopeline

Network," Lloyd Potter, deputy director of the EDC Center

for Violence and Injury Prevention, said recently. "We’ve

talked about utilizing 1.800.SUICIDE as the number for

our resource center and having most calls routed through

1.800.SUICIDE to get a joint benefit and to ensure that

callers who may be in crisis are routed to a crisis center.

Our plan is to jointly use the number. If we and the

Hopeline both advertise the number, there’s real synergy.

"EDC staff," he added, will also "be combing through

the literature and, with the help of a lot of experts,

articulating what the best practices are on crisis counseling

and referrals. We anticipate having the ability to identify

needs and disseminate information," he said. "If someone

is starting a crisis center or wants help, we’ll be there to try

and help hook them up with appropriate information and

resources."

The EDC grant is to be administered by the Substance

Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

(SAMHSA), a public health agency within the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services that works to

improve the quality and availability of substance abuse

prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services

in this country.

The new center is to be a collaborative effort involving

the EDC, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS),

the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP),

the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network (SPAN) and a