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(Music)
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Suicide is a particularly big problem in rural communities.
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In western North Carolina and Appalachia, we are certainly in
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a rural area.
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We know that the suicide rates continue to steadily climb.
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They are especially problematic for young people.
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We've got to do something.
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The Injury-Free NC Academy is our workforce development
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initiative in North Carolina.
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And we held a session to focus on suicide prevention to enable
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teams from communities that were interested and ready to address
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suicide to help them advance their work in their community.
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So CDC's core injury funding is a foundational funding
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for our program.
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The Core Injury Funding Program helps us establish a base
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to be able to work with a very wide range and diverse
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group of partners.
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CDC supported the Injury-Free Academy,
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and that really served as the genesis for the CALM program.
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CALM stands for Counseling on Access to Lethal Means.
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It's a relatively new approach to more traditional forms of
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suicide prevention, and it focuses around reducing
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people's access to the most dangerous methods of suicide
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when they're in crisis.
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They're doing great work in the state.
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We would not have had that program in North Carolina
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if it hadn't been for the academy experience.
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Injury Prevention, CDCÕs Injury Center.
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The Core State Violence and Injury Prevention Program
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partnership with the Injury Control Research Centers
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is critical so that we can generate knowledge that helps to
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advance the field of injury and violence prevention.
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These partners bring different perspectives,
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and both are critically important.
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So, we need to have that big-picture view of
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what is working, what the research tells us,
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but we also need that practical side of it.
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And our practitioners know what's likely to work
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in their region.
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They know what the priorities are of the populations that
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we're really trying to address with these groups.
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And it's critical that both research is informing practice
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and that practice is informing research.
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The Injury Control Research Center funding that we receive
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from CDC allows us to do so much more—
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to do a study that actually has an impact and to take the
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information that we create from our research and distribute it
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to the community so that they can use it.
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I have no doubt that lives have been saved through this.
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I think it really sets the tone for establishing, you know,
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evidence-based practices that fundamentally,
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not just to start the process, but to sustain it.
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It's all about safety.
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And I think everyone can get behind that.
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(Music)