Lifelines is a comprehensive, schoolwide suicide prevention program for middle and high school students. The goal of Lifelines is to promote a caring, competent school community in which help seeking is encouraged and modeled and suicidal behavior is recognized as an issue that cannot be kept secret. Lifelines seeks to increase the likelihood that school staff and students will know how to identify at-risk youth when they encounter them, provide an appropriate initial response, and obtain help, as well as be inclined to take such action.
Lifelines includes a set of components to be implemented sequentially: a review of resources and establishment of administrative guidelines and procedures for responding to a student at risk; training for school faculty and staff to enhance suicide awareness and an understanding of the role they can play in identifying and responding to a student with suicidal behavior; a workshop and informational materials for parents; and implementation of a curriculum for students, the Lifelines Curriculum, to inform students about suicidal behavior and discuss their role in suicide prevention.