Suicide prevention centers. Ecological study of effectiveness.

While suicide prevention services are continually expanding, efforts to measure their efficacy are seldom found in the literature. This study examines the effect of suicide prevention centers in North Carolina on the suicide rate in 1970. The data are examined in a ecological context, i.e., pertinent demographic variables are included in the analysis of the suicide rate in North Carolina counties with an emphasis on structural and contextual effects. A review of the literature on suicide prevention center efficacy, a description of those counties in North Carolina that support such centers, and a rigorous testing of their effect on the countywide suicide rate are undertaken in the present analysis. All of the analyses of the data indicate that the centers have minimal effect on the suicide rate.