Tide Against Suicide is the University of Alabama’s comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. It has its roots in the international Zero Suicide Initiative. Based on this Initiative, Tide Against Suicide has as its aspirational goal to establish a new standard for suicide prevention – moving towards suicide elimination. Our approach relies on the investment and engagement of all faculty staff and students to come together to successfully turn the tide against suicide and to aspire towards zero suicide.
The mission of the Tide Against Suicide Initiative is to approach suicide prevention at the University of Alabama in a comprehensive and holistic manner, spanning the breadth of prevention, intervention, and postvention services. This is achieved through promoting healthy dialogue about suicide on campus, preparing members of our community with the skills and knowledge they need to assist individuals at risk for suicide, and prioritizing effective campus policy and procedure related to suicide.
The vision of the Tide Against Suicide Initiative is to prevent suicides within the UA community through visible, approachable, community-wide, and student-led efforts.
In order to strive to uphold our mission and achieve our vision, we will strive to adhere to these core principles:
In order to be effective, suicide prevention efforts must engage the community at multiple levels. The Tide Against Suicide initiate seeks to do so in the following ways. The ultimate goal of each level of engagement is to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors.
