Our Advisory Group Partners

Since launching the NW PA Veteran Suicide Prevention Program, the support and expertise of our Advisory Groups’ partners have been a dedicated and valuable resource. We encourage you to visit their websites and learn more about each member’s role in helping reduce Veteran suicide risk.

Community Care Behavioral Health Organization (CCHBO) & Beacon Health Options (BHO)

CCHBO and BHO will support outreach efforts to health systems and service providers in NW region, support data collection efforts, provide service reimbursement support to participating provider organizations, and support reimbursement model development (e.g., VBP) for services.

Evaluation Institute (EI) at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH)

EI will be responsible for providing input into the evaluation strategies, instrument design and development, ethnographic data collection methods and analysis, general and advanced statistical analysis, and qualitative and quantitative data processing, collection, and management. EI will also coordinate with the GSPH’s Center for Medicaid Studies regarding Medicaid/Medicare claims data analyses of healthcare sites within the region and across PA for the purpose of developing and using these data for surveillance purposes (i.e., suicide attempts, upstream and downstream services access of suicide decedents, etc.).

National Sports Shooting Foundation (NSSF) and Hold My Guns (HMG)

NSSF and HMG’s role will be to ensure that the Program can effectively incorporate interventional efforts aimed at instituting effective Veteran screening for suicide risk, reduction of lethal means, and gun safety.

PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)

PCCD will be responsible for assisting the Program in accessing criminal justice-related entities within the NW region (i.e., District Attorneys, Chiefs of Police, Judiciary, Probation and Parole, Jail and Prison systems).

PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP)

DDAP will be responsible for helping to ensure that substance use disorder (SUD) programs within the region indicate Veteran status in their intake, helping the Program access SUD programs as needed for training and initiative recruitment, and helping develop policies for the SUD treatment system across PA that are derived from the Program’s learnings to support Veteran suicide reduction and improve the integration and coordination of SUD, mental health, and physical health systems.

PA Department of Health (PADOH)

PADOH will be responsible for helping to strategize ways that its mortality data can systematically list Veteran status and ways that coroners within the NW region could participate in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), providing the Program with additional data (e.g., mechanism/method of injury) to target education and implementation activities, and ensuring that its work with the CDC integrates with the Program’s efforts.

PA Department of Human Services (DHS)

DHS will be responsible for providing the Program with Medicaid/Medicare claims data from related healthcare systems for the purpose of developing a Veteran suicide attempt surveillance process and assisting in developing financial and service-related policies that would support Veteran suicide reduction.

PA Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA)

DMVA will be responsible for ensuring that the Program integrates with PA’s current Veteran suicide prevention initiatives (e.g. Governor’s and Mayor’s Challenges).

Pennsylvania Coroner’s Association (PCA)

PCA will assist in accessing coroner data within the NW region and when possible helping the coroners move to participating in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS).

Coroners in 10 counties have partnered with this project: Erie, Mercer, Venango, Clarion, Butler, Lawrence, Elk, Forest, Warren, and Crawford. County coroners collect and analyze county and municipality-level suicide mortality data among adults in Northwest Pennsylvania. This surveillance data will be used to characterize the epidemiological factors associated with the deaths and study the impact of the project interventions on community suicide rates. As part of this collaboration, coroners submit de-identified or aggregate data for all adult (ages 18+) suicide deaths in their county, including the number of suicides per county, and number of those suicides which are confirmed to be Veterans.

UPMC Western Behavioral at Safe Harbor (SH)

UPMC SH will serve as a direct service provider for target population, support community outreach and care coordination, and facilitate gatekeeper training to healthcare providers and community partners.

VA Healthcare VISN4

VISN 4’s role will be to ensure that VA’s SP 2.0 activities within VISN 4 (which includes NW PA) are integrated and coordinated with the Program, relevant (as permitted) VA data are shared with the initiative, any relevant community data collected by the Program are integrated into its SP 2.0 efforts, lessons learned from each initiative are applied.