Your Voice Counts: An Online Forum to Engage the Public and Stakeholders In Suicide Prevention Activities In California

Background:  A suicide-prevention social marketing initiative funded by the Mental Health Services Act and overseen by the California Mental Health Services Authority includes a media campaign intended to reach audiences reflecting diverse cultures, ages, elevated risk for suicide and those close to them. The initiative is integrated with other suicide-prevention projects throughout the state, strengthening the network of crisis centers, expanding suicide-prevention training, and decreasing stigma around mental illness. 

Program background:  To integrate these activities, build on existing models, and gather stakeholder input, an online forum named Your Voice Counts was developed, allowing individuals to collaborate, share best practices, express opinions via polls and weigh in on campaign concepts and designs and promote activities occurring throughout the state. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Your Voice Counts facilitates information sharing and dialogues around suicide-prevention allowing stakeholders representing the 58 diverse counties in California to shape the campaign making it relevant to their communities. Features of the forum encourage members to post announcements, form workgroups and participate in polls and discussions. The forum connects people who have never met and lend their expertise toward a common cause. Membership in the forum ranges from consumers to community advocates and subject-matter experts to health officials. The forum stresses to participants that their perspectives and ideas help make the integration of activities and overarching suicide-prevention campaign informative, relevant and impactful. 

Conclusions: Stakeholders must have a convenient, easy to use format where information can be accesses and shared. In order to have true collaboration, stakeholders must have a method to provide input; Creating an online platform allows for increased participation and engagement.

Implications for research and/or practice:  The presentation will demonstrate how the site was developed, how it functions, how members were recruited, how the forum facilitates collaboration and feedback, and how it informs suicide-prevention activities. It will assist health-communication marketing experts in designing their own platform to garner data-driven input across regions, stakeholder groups and areas of expertise.