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The Irsay Institute Indiana University
Tools & Resources

Innovation Think Tank on Suicide

Shifting from a Deficit to a Strength Perspective for Indiana Mental Health

Background

The Innovation Think Tank (ITT) is a partnership of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA), the Irsay Institute at Indiana University, Notre Dame University, and Purdue University. 

In January 2021, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction unveiled a new statewide vision for suicide prevention efforts: decreasing suicide through improving quality of life, The Irsay Institute at Indiana University is supporting the effort to develop the Innovation Think Tank on suicide. The goals of the ITT are to develop novel, evidence-based, and sustainable programs to improve mental health and reduce the State’s death toll. 

This community of researchers and leaders will do this by: 

  • Building an Indiana researcher network to improve collaboration and communication across researchers focused on understanding and decreasing the targeted death categories. One major way this group is forming is through regular Intensive Weekend Workshops that allow researchers time to collaborate and plan activities. 
  • Increasing targeted research needed to provide the scientific foundation for this new vision through leveraging the Person-to-Person Health Interview Study (P2P) and developing federal funding program proposals to increase the general understanding of suicide and suicide prevention.
  • Creating a team of evaluators to determine the research needed to measure the efficacy and effectiveness of State-funded programs that aim to improve Hoosier’s quality of life and reduce premature deaths related to suicide and addiction. Based on the three previous goals, identifying novel strategies and evaluation methods to improve understanding of how to move from a deficit to a strength perspective, what drives the risk for these premature deaths, and what primary prevention programs can nullify such risk and fortify Hoosiers when they are experiencing the factors that tend to drive death from suicide and addiction in Indiana.

Collaborators

Indiana University Bloomington

  • James Brown (IUB School of Social Work)
  • Jessica Brantez (IUB Department of Sociology Graduate Student)
  • Marianne Chirica (IUB Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences)
  • Brian D’Onofrio (IUB Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences)
  • Kristy Eaton (Indiana School Mental Health Initiative - Indiana Institute on Disability and Community)
  • Anna Mueller (IUB Dept of Sociology, Irsay Institute)
  • Alberto Ortega (O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs)
  • Bernice Pescosolido (IUB Dept of Sociology, Irsay Institute)
  • Myeshia Price (Counseling and Educational Psychology - Human Development; IUB School of Ed; Kinsey Institute)
  • Tennisha Riley (IUB School of Education - Department of Counseling; Educational Psychology, University of Florida)
  • Ellen Vaughan (Counseling and Educational Psychology - IUB School of Ed)

IU East

IU School of Medicine

  • Matthew Aalsma (Jonathan and Jennifer Simmons Professor of Pediatrics)
  • Zachary Adams (Department of Psychology)
  • Leslie Hulvershorn (Chair, Department of Psychiatry;
  • Lauren O’Reilly (Department of Pediatrics - Clinical Psychiatry)
  • Casey Pederson (Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry)
  • Sarah Wiehe (Associate Dean of Community & Translational Research, IUSM; Co-director, Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute)
  • Tamika Zapolski (Department of Psychiatry)

Purdue

Notre Dame

  • Ted Beauchaine (ND Co-director, Suicide Prevention Initiative — Research, Intervention, & Training [SPIRIT])
  • Christine Gebhardt (ND VP for Student Affairs and Director of UCC)

State

Other State and Nonprofit Groups

  • Kelsey Aaron (Executive Director, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention)
  • Chris Drapeau (Director-Research and Evaluation 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline)