The implementation and institutionalization of a school-based youth suicide prevention program

This paper describes the implementation and institutionalization of a comprehensive, county-wide, school-based youth suicide prevention program. Ten years after the program dissemination was begun, the extent of implementation and institutionalization was assessed utilizing a survey of the 46 public high schools in the county together with in depth interviews with informants from the first 11 schools that had adopted the program. All but one of the 31 survey respondents, and 9 of 11 interviewees had retained the student lessons that were the core of the program. Program retention was associated with a variety of factors suggested by the literature as supportive to the institutionalization of school-based innovations.