NYU ARCADIA Center for Suicide Prevention

ARCADIA for Suicide Prevention takes a developmentally-informed, population-health approach to adolescent suicide. With the prediction of adolescent suicide barely better than chance, we focus on the places where adolescents already are (schools, primary care, emergency rooms) and leverage trusted sources of support (peers, parents, trusted adults). With attention to the unique developmental needs of adolescent autonomy and identity, and guided by the ideas of youth themselves and those with lived experience, we draw on innovations from diverse disciplines (e.g., neuroscience, behavioral economics, implementation science, public health, communications) for our Center. Our focus is to strengthen bridges, integrating prevention and intervention, within and across the places where youth are situated, drawing from the “Swiss cheese model” for industrial accidents (recognizing that each place has gaps but their layering can support more kids at risk than when each exists on its own). We approach our work as a partnership between academia and public agencies, for seamless integration into practice, and to reach all youth, at population-scale.