Minnesota Suicide Prevention Taskforce

Taskforce Mission and Vision Statements

Mission Statement. To empower communities to collaborate and implement comprehensive suicide prevention.

Vision Statement. We envision a Minnesota where everyone works together to reduce suicide experiences -- where individuals and communities are connected, supported, and have access to care.

Purpose of Taskforce

Pursuant to State Statute 145.56, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is tasked to coordinate the Minnesota Suicide Prevention Taskforce, hereinafter Taskforce, in collaboration with other state agencies, community organizations, and institutions to develop, implement, and evaluate the State of Minnesota's Suicide Prevention Plan. The goal of the State Plan is to develop and implement a comprehensive public health approach to promote health and wellness and reduce suicide death and self-harm injury.

Taskforce responsibilities

1. Elevate suicide prevention as a priority in Minnesota.

2. Develop, implement, and evaluate the Minnesota Suicide Prevention State Plan.

3. Use a data driven process to understand the needs of the State for Suicide Prevention.

4. Develop Taskforce goals, objectives and action plan with timelines, benchmarks and responsible agencies.

5. Promote best practices, create recommendations and tools to coordinate consistency of what is being implemented across the State.

6. Build partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, diverse populations, and sectors across the State.

7. Collaborate and coordinate to align with existing task forces, coalitions, and suicide prevention groups.

8. Increase the capacity of local communities to coordinate and implement culturally appropriate suicide prevention activities.

9. Evaluate the implementation of the Minnesota State Suicide Prevention Plan.

Taskforce members

The Taskforce consists of multi-sector stakeholders from both public and private sectors that live or work in the State of Minnesota. Members of the Taskforce include people representing State Agencies as well as other agencies, organizations, and institutions across the State of Minnesota.

To learn more about becoming a member of The Minnesota Suicide Prevention Taskforce, please contact Kelly Felton at kelly.felton@state.mn.us.

Member responsibilities

Members come to the table as volunteers to work as an individual and/or representative from agencies, organizations or institutions who agree to work together toward a common goal, which is to reduce suicidal experiences among all Minnesotans. Each member agrees to:

1. Support the Taskforce’s mission and vision.

2. Attend Taskforce meetings, which are held on a quarterly basis.

3. Contribute to the strategic planning process by bringing personal and or professional experience and expertise to help guide suicide prevention.

4. Represent and develop a plan to bring the priorities back to your sector/discipline of concern and/or region of the State.

5. Participate to sustain the Taskforce’s capacity, involvement, and energy.

6. Respect the rights of other members to hold their own opinions and beliefs.

7. Members should make every effort to inform themselves of current issues by reading emails from the taskforce coordinator and other communications, such as legislative updates from other organizations.

Committees

The Taskforce has five working committees that are responsible for implementing the goals and objectives laid out in their committee action plan. The committees are comprised of individuals that are interested in the specific topic. Below is a list of each of the committees and their responsibilities:

1. Communications Committee is responsible for guiding all communications across the continuum of Suicide Prevention, to include mental health promotion, early intervention, crisis intervention, and postvention. 

2. Mental Health and Well-being Committee is responsible for guiding the implementation of the mental health promotion and universal suicide prevention strategies.

3. Intervention Committee is responsible for guiding the implementation of the suicide intervention strategies.

4. Postvention Committee is responsible for guiding the implementation of the suicide postvention strategies.

5. Suicide Data Action Team Committee is responsible for guiding the implementation of the data-related goals and objectives of the State Plan.