Allow us to re-introduce ourselves, the Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC) of Dane County!
After listening to feedback from group members, a larger discussion and voting process began to choose a new name that would phase out the original name of the group called the Ending Deaths from Despair Task Force. 50% of group members who voted selected Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition as their top choice!
Our mission and goals remain the same.
We are a community-based coalition bringing together friends, families, neighbors, and professional stakeholders to organize and mobilize to reduce preventable deaths by suicide, opiate, and alcohol use in Dane County.
We do so through the following strategies:
- Increase protective factors
- Reduce lethal risk of suicide and overdose
- Increase access to care
- Implement best practices for treatment in health care systems
- Use data to inform and evaluate efforts
We know that effective suicide prevention requires a comprehensive public health approach that addresses social determinants of health beyond a single focus on mental health. Suicide prevention strategies are being implemented across Dane County in a variety of sectors including schools, community centers, health care systems, gun shops, and more.
Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. It is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs. In Dane County, we continue to expand our harm reduction and overdose prevention efforts by working alongside people in recovery and who have direct lived/living experience with substance use.
“Deaths of despair” remains an important framing that urges us to pay attention to and address the current economic system in the U.S., that enables a fragmented social safety net, causing increases in suicide, drug overdose, and deaths from alcohol related diseases among middle-aged and older white working class Americans. While the older “deaths of despair” data pointed to that demographic, in recent years, rates are increasing disproportionately among Indigenous (Native American and Alaska Native) and Black Americans.
We are committed to applying data-driven strategies and updating our language as we learn more from national best practices and people with direct lived experience here in our community.
The Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC) of Dane County is co-chaired by Leah Rolando with Safe Communities and Kailey Peterson with Dane County Emergency Management. The Steering Committee also includes Julia Olsen and Aurielle Smith (Public Health Madison Dane County), Jim Van Den Brandt, Todd Campbell, and Carrie Simon (Dane County Department of Human Services), Carrie Meier (Dane County Emergency Management), and Cheryl Wittke (Safe Communities).
If you would like to learn more or get involved with the coalition, please email Leah at lrolando@safercommunity.net.