Projects

This participatory, pragmatic efficacy-implementation trial evaluates the impact of Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES) on adult participants and the adults and youth they are ‘close to’, who we hypothesize will benefit from the intervention. For sustainability, the project also identifies barriers and enablers to community implementation of PC CARES in rural Alaska Native (AN) communitie The study: (1) tests the effectiveness of a promising suicide prevention intervention developed with and for AN communities; (2) builds on cultural and community knowledges as well as scientific best practices; (3) examines adult participant outcomes and diffusion at a community level, (4) tracks the impact of adult prevention behaviors on youth-reported protective outcomes, which promote mental health, safety and buffer suicide risk, and (5) by partnering with a successful educational pathway for AN community mental health workers, our study of barriers and enablers of implementation will pave the way for feasibly scaling PC CARES to other rural and remote AIAN communities who suffer disproportionately from youth suicide. This project contributes to our long-term goal of translating suicide prevention research into culturally-responsive community practice to reduce suicide risk and promote youth wellbeing in AN communities.