The History of the Suicide Prevention Center
Submitted by didi on Fri, 2007-03-09 22:33.
| California is home to the first suicide prevention center in the United States, Didi Hirsch’s Suicide Prevention Center. Founded in 1958 as the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, it is best known for the 24-hour suicide prevention crisis line. |
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| Dr. Norman Farberow | Dr. Edwin Shneidman |
| In 1958, as news of the Center's founding became known, suicidal individuals and their loved ones began to inquire about services. Surprised at the outpouring of interest, the small staff of founders (Drs. Norman Farberow, Robert Litman, and Edwin Shneidman) realized that they were unable to personally receive all of the crisis calls. Based on a pioneering paraprofessional training model recently reported at Johns Hopkins, eight volunteers were recruited and trained (see the Suicide Prevention Center's illustrated timeline). As an experiment, staff and volunteers stayed after working hours to see if the need for service persisted throughout the night. Thus began the first suicide prevention crisis line. Over the years the Suicide Prevention Center became a model for hundreds of other centers (nationally and internationally) and has performed a number of outcome studies attesting to the efficacy of telephone crisis intervention. In the early 1960's, the Suicide Prevention Center was contacted by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office to aid in investigations of equivocal deaths. The procedures developed during these investigations produced the method of psychological autopsy commonly used today. It was not until the late summer of 1962, with the sensational and sudden death of actress Marilyn Monroe, that the Suicide Prevention Center truly gained local stardom. Working with the medical examiner, Dr. Litman and social worker Sam Heilig were the lead investigators into Ms. Monroe's death, which led to a dramatic surge in phone calls to the Center and the need for a significant corps of trained volunteers to handle the influx of calls. Early in the 1980's, the Suicide Prevention Center began providing specialized support groups for family members and friends who had lost a loved one to suicide through our Survivors After Suicide program. The eight-week groups are currently led by a licensed therapist and a peer group facilitator who has lost a loved one to suicide. Supplementing the eight-week groups are a monthly drop-in group, a telephone support network, specialized bereavement literature and a quarterly newsletter. Support groups are held in Los Angeles County, and the newsletter has a nationwide distribution. |
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Merging with Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in 1997, the Suicide Prevention Center retains the historic crisis line, now staffed with more than 150 trained volunteers and supervisors. The 24-hour Crisis Line receives over 22,000 calls each year and has recently expanded to include a toll-free line for Los Angeles County and Orange County (877-7CRISIS) and is a part of a national suicide prevention line. |