HHD Director Receives Award for Efforts to Prevent Suicide

The Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention (MCSP) presented an award to Dr. Lloyd Potter, Director of HHD’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), at an event on February 7, 2005 celebrating suicide prevention. The event, “Taking Action, Preventing Suicide,” was held at the Massachusetts State House. It featured speakers on suicide and suicide prevention and included legislators, survivors of suicide, and the presentation of awards to four individuals and organizations.

According to MCSP co-chair and Samaritans of Boston Executive Director Roberta Hurtig, “The leadership, passion, and dedication of the four award recipients have helped to prevent suicide and self injury in Massachusetts.” The other award recipients were Massachusetts State Senator Jack Hart, the consumers of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI,) and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation.

Dr. Lloyd Potter has played a long-term pivotal role in advancing national suicide prevention efforts including in the position of Branch Chief of Youth Violence and Suicide Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has been a leader of the SPRC since its inception in 2002.

“Since I first started learning about suicide in the early 1990’s, I have found it perplexing that so few resources have been directed toward prevention,” says Potter. “I am convinced that this has been largely a function of stigma surrounding suicide and lack of awareness of the significance of suicide as a public health problem. In recent years, there has been increasing awareness on the part of policymakers that has come about largely from the actions of people personally affected by suicidal behavior and professionals committed to prevention.”

SPRC, a project of Health and Human Development Programs at EDC, is the nation’s first federally-funded suicide prevention resource center. It supports communities with the best of science, skills, and practice to prevent suicide. Potter says, “SPRC is fundamentally committed to advancing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention through facilitating partnerships and collaboration, training professionals, and developing and disseminating information and tools to help communities strengthen their efforts to prevent suicide.”

MCSP, the award granting organization, is an alliance of suicide prevention advocates, including public and private agency representatives, policymakers, suicide survivors, and mental health and public health consumers and providers committed to working together to reduce suicide and self-injury in Massachusetts. It supports and develops suicide prevention initiatives by providing leadership and advocacy, promoting collaborations among organizations, developing policy, and promoting research and development.