The Place of Suicide Prevention in the Spectrum of Intervention: Definitions of Critical Terms and Constructs

The authors trace the evolution of prevention models and conceptual foundations for the prevention of disorders starting with the public health/medical model and concluding with the contemporary model recently proposed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. They compare and contrast the contributions of each model toward the theoretical reduction of suicide in the general population. Risk and protective factors as they relate to suicidal behaviors are identified. The paper explores conceptual frameworks used to understand population-level risk factors and moves toward a discussion of how to target individuals at risk for suicidal behaviors. First-order and second-order targets of change in prevention efforts are defined and examples provided.