CHA and Cardinal Health Announce Second Round of Preventing Youth Suicide Grant Recipients

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Children’s Hospital Association (CHA), in partnership with Cardinal Health and the Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI), announced the second cohort of grant recipients of the Preventing Youth Suicide: A Cardinal Health Foundation National Collaborative as part of a coordinated effort to address the youth mental health crisis. 14 children’s hospitals and health systems, which join last year’s cohort of 16 grantees, will each be awarded $100,000 grant over two years, to implement quality improvements in behavioral health systems.

The Preventing Youth Suicide Collaborative is the first national collaborative working to develop a pediatric-specific, data-driven approach to better identify and care for children at risk for suicide. With expert consultation from the ZSI at the Education Development Center (EDC), grantees will be able to track, share, and implement best suicide prevention practices with each other, Cardinal Health, the ZSI, and CHA.

“Children’s hospitals and health systems work within their hospitals, outpatient clinics and emergency rooms and in partnership with their communities to improve the health of children and youth – including their mental, emotional and behavioral health,” said Amy Wimpey Knight, president of CHA. “With some 30 pediatric health care organizations now focused on building stronger care systems to recognize, intervene and treat children and youth at risk of suicide through the Preventing Youth Suicide Collaborative, we will save lives. We are grateful to these hospitals, their community partners and to Cardinal Health and the Zero Suicide Institute for their leadership and partnership with CHA. We are committed to sharing their work with children’s hospitals across the nation.” 

Both cohorts are collecting data on five measures: suicide screening, assessment, attempts, deaths and a system-defined measure. 

“Being a part of this transformative national quality initiative has been a game changer for our patients, families, care teams, hospital system, and accelerated partnerships and collaborations at the local, state, and national level,” said Ron-Li Liaw, M.D., Mental Health-In-Chief at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “Following the Zero Suicide Framework, everyone across our organization from our executive team to managers and supervisors to front line care teams, youth and family partners, are actively engaged in raising awareness, learning and innovation, early identification and intervention to prevent suicide. The collaborative’s thoughtful and tailored approach to measuring outcomes that matter led to robust partnerships among our children’s hospital quality research team and the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment’s Office of Suicide Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health.” 

Children’s hospitals in the 2022 cohort reported on suicide screening practices and suicide risk assessment practices across a wide variety of venues within the hospital including emergency departments, inpatient medical units, inpatient psychiatric units, ambulatory clinics, and outpatient behavioral health settings. Across all hospitals and all venues, the aggregated suicide screening rate exceeded 70% and the suicide risk assessment rate among patients screening positive was more than 85%. 

Since 2020, Cardinal Health has invested $5.4 million to more than 47 hospitals and health systems nationwide to help reduce mental health crises. After the two-year grant ends in 2024, Children’s Hospital Association is committed to continuing the work of the Collaborative. Behavioral health, inclusive of suicide prevention, is a priority of the Association’s quality and improvement agenda.   

“At Cardinal Health, we’re committed to investing in the mental wellbeing of not only our employees, but our communities as well,” said Jessie Cannon, vice president of Community Relations at Cardinal Health. “We’re proud to continue to support the work CHA, ZSI and children’s hospitals are doing to reduce youth suicide. We’re confident this program will make a lasting impact in funded communities.” 

The following children’s hospitals and health systems have been awarded grants: 

• AdventHealth for Children – Fla. 
• Advocate Children’s Hospital – Ill.  
• Boston Children's Hospital – Mass.  
• Children's Minnesota – Minn.  
• Children's Wisconsin – Wis.  
• Cohen Children's Medical Center, Northwell Health – N.Y.  
• Doernbecher Children's Hospital – Ore.  
• Mary Bridge Children's Hospital – Wash.  
• Medical University of South Carolina Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital – S.C.  
• Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt – Tenn.  
• Penn State Children’s Hospital – Pa. 
• Intermountain Primary Children’s – Utah 
• Stanford Children's Health – Calif. 
• Wolfson Children's Hospital – Fla.  

To learn more about the collaborative visit: Preventing Youth Suicide National Collaborative

###

About Cardinal Health  
Cardinal Health is a distributor of pharmaceuticals, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, and a provider of performance and data solutions for healthcare facilities. With more than 50 years in business, operations in 30 countries and approximately 46,500 employees globally, Cardinal Health is essential to care. Information about Cardinal Health is available at Cardinalhealth.com.