Violence & Suicide Prevention

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The Public Policy Center is working to prevent acts of targeted violence and decrease the suicide rate in Nebraska with various initiatives on targeted violence prevention, suicide prevention, threat assessment, and school safety. Center staff facilitate the development of threat assessment capabilities to enhance law enforcement, educational, and behavioral health professionals’ abilities to address various aspects of targeted violence (e.g., stalking, school violence, extremist violence).

PPC researchers work in consultation with Nebraska agencies and University partners (often with federal funding support) to develop and assess suicide detection and prevention efforts.

Recent projects include: 

Nebraska Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Project

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center (NUPPC) leads the Nebraska Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Project, a statewide initiative focused on suicide prevention. The NUPPC, in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), launched a focused media campaign in efforts to lower suicide rates – especially for men ages 25-64 whose rate is nearly twice that of other Nebraskans. We are providing funding through the Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition to allow Behavioral Health Regions to implement evidence-based suicide prevention activities like providing safe weapon storage options and training in suicide prevention.

988 Suicide Lifeline Implementation

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center partnered with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) across various projects to help coordinate, evaluate, increase awareness, and develop documentation for 988. The 988 helpline, modeled after 911, replaced the 10-digit suicide hotline number nationally in July 2022. It is a national number but managed by individual states. Calls, texts, and online chats in Nebraska are routed to the state’s call center at Boys Town in Omaha.

Nebraska Behavioral Health Threat Assessment and Management Technical Assistance

The Nebraska Behavioral Health Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) Technical Assistance Project builds on Nebraska assets and capabilities through a collaboration between Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center. The project’s mission is to prevent targeted violence by enhancing the capacity of Nebraska’s behavioral health workforce to participate in behavioral threat and violence risk assessment and management. This project includes access to training workshop opportunities, resources, and consultations from threat assessment experts for clinicians and threat assessment teams, while leveraging and enhancing Nebraska’s behavioral health assets. These assets include a Violence Risk Assessment Cadre of Clinicians, Certified Threat Managers, Nebraska helplines (988, Safe2Help, Rural Response Hotline, 211, and the Nebraska Family Helplines), Mobile Crisis Response Teams and Crisis Facilities, and School and Facility Threat and Crisis Teams. Learn more at the BTAM website.

Violence Assessment in Rural Communities

Domestic terrorism is emerging as a concern in the United States. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center partnered with the National Institute of Justice to learn how to identify ideologically influenced threatening and aggressive behavior in rural communities. This mixed method research includes case studies, interviews with representatives from law enforcement, mental health, and schools. Implications of this project for policy and practice include ways to identify potential terrorists early, driving development of prevention strategies that local authorities can implement when learning of individuals who present lower-level targeted violence behaviors.

Nebraska Youth Suicide Prevention

As part of a five-year GLS Suicide Prevention Grant, PPC researchers worked with Region V Systems and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) to reduce rates of youth suicide by promoting prevention and postvention policies. This effort placed a special emphasis on southeast Nebraska’s 16 county area addressing documented public health data recording a high suicide rate. Implementing postvention policies based on standard guidelines and routine evidence-based suicide screening in schools was a goal for the NDE working through the Educational Service Units across the state. PPC staff worked with the suicide prevention coalition of Lancaster County and the State Suicide Prevention Coalition sponsoring activities to promote messages regarding suicide prevention. 

More information and resources can be found on the Nebraska Youth Suicide Prevention website.

Campus Suicide Prevention

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center collaborated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on “An Evidence-based Approach to Preventing Student Suicide at UNL.” The project’s goal was to continue to build infrastructure to increase and sustain capacity for the effective identification of and intervention for at risk students and to develop a culturally appropriate, comprehensive approach to address mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

Services

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Conference & Training Facilitation

For many of our active projects, our staff plan and execute conferences, workshops, and seminars of all sizes, virtual and in-person. This includes event management, technology recommendations, graphic design, communications, and accommodations for in-person and remote-hosted events. Additionally, staff are experienced in managing all logistics for virtual and in-person events. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is an approved continuing education sponsor through the American Psychological Association (APA). This means we can facilitate psychologists’ access to continuing education that meets APA standards.

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Grant Development & Management

We pursue and manage funding opportunities to support policy-related initiatives. Center researchers garner both public and private funding at the local, state, and national levels for applied and translational research grants. We work closely with partners to identify funding opportunities, develop grant and contract proposal narratives, create budgets and timelines, execute agreements, manage grant funds in accordance with funder requirements, and submit required fiscal and programmatic reporting.

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Program Design and Evaluation

Center research staff routinely conduct program evaluations in partnership with stakeholders to define questions, plan activities, interpret results, and use findings to recommend and implement changes. We use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods techniques appropriate to the project. Our programmatic capabilities include survey design, interviews, focus groups, mapping geographic data, overall data analysis, and report preparation.

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Project Management, Strategic Planning & Consulting

Our researchers bring high-level management expertise to projects for all kinds of organizations. We bring research-based insights to executive decision-making, develop organizational structures to achieve desired results; assist with communication planning, agenda setting and creating necessary informational materials; implement research plans; and guide open communication among stakeholders. Our researchers are trained in facilitation and regularly lead stakeholders through strategic planning, problem definition, and consensus-building, as well as discovering organizational priorities, setting goals, and creating action plans.

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Scholarly Research

Our approach is rooted in academic-oriented inquiry and investigation. We provide basic research products for partners such as high-quality and easy-to-understand literature reviews, white papers, and briefing papers. Our researchers come from diverse disciplines, including: Business, Economics, Family and Consumer Sciences, Law, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. 

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Stakeholder Engagement & Outreach

We work with stakeholders to design and execute customized frameworks. This includes determining the breadth, length, location, and timing of facilitated events; identifying participants; collecting data from participants throughout the planning or engagement process; creating opportunities for feedback and debriefing; and producing draft and final products based on results. In addition, many of our staff consult with outside organizations and conduct professional presentations on a variety of issues.