Project Overview
Associate Professor Marc Karver, Ph.D. and Professor Krista Kutash, Ph.D. have received a three-year, 1.5 million dollar federally-funded suicide prevention grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) to evaluate the state of Florida's efforts to reduce the rate of suicide in youths aged 10 to 24.
The Florida A.S.A.P.(Adolescent Suicide Awareness and Prevention) Partnership is a three-year project that will evaluate the effectiveness of training adults employed in community agencies, parents, and youths to identify and refer at risk youths; evaluate the effectiveness of case management services and related services for those referred to services by selecting a sample of youth who were referred for services and asking the youths and their parents about the effectiveness of their services and potential predictors of effectiveness; and evaluate the effectiveness of social marketing techniques meant to increase overall community awareness of suicide prevention strategies.
The Florida ASAP Partnership will target Duvall County, a large county including the city of Jacksonville that has a youth suicide rate higher than the national average. The possibility of statewide utilization of the Florida A.S.A.P. model will be assisted through an evaluation of the project's effectiveness in its initial implementation in Duval County, showing its effectiveness and adaptability for wide scale implementation throughout Florida's 67 rural, urban, and culturally diverse counties.