Local communities across North Carolina can now apply for UNC-Chapel Hill's new suicide prevention program. It's the university's latest effort to decrease suicide rates, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say have increased since the pandemic.
The statewide program is a partnership between the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute and Carolina Across 100 — an initiative to work with all 100 counties to fix pandemic-related problems.
By collaborating with local entities like school systems, nonprofits and healthcare providers, the program aims to identify the specific needs of communities to design suitable suicide-prevention strategies and increase mental health resources.
UNC professor Anita Brown-Graham leads the program.
"The social isolation that occurred during the pandemic — the unbelievable human stress that we all found ourselves under — probably all contributed to mental stressors that have led to suicide," she said.
Brown-Graham said it is important to acknowledge the community impact suicides can have — something she said particularly resonates after several suicides at North Carolina State University during the academic school year.
"We aren't necessarily responding to those," she said, "But those heart-wrenching events on our own campus make us that much more sensitive to what it must feel like to high schools and elderly communities and families across North Carolina who are dealing with this."
Brown-Graham said the program will work with 10 to 12 communities. Applications are now open at UNC's Carolina Across 100 website. The deadline to apply is July 28.