Eric D. Caine

Suicide research and prevention emerged during the past 25 years as my central interest for investigation and practice, now reaching across the life course and involving collaborations throughout the US and internationally. This is an area where it has been possible to integrate biological, psychological, pathological, social and cultural, public health, and international perspectives in a single problem focus. Since 2001, my colleagues and I have had funding from the NIH Fogarty International Center to build an international research network devoted to rigorous prevention, intervention, and services-level research, all aimed to reducing the burden of suicide, attempted suicide, and their antecedent risk factors. Reducing the mortality and morbidity of suicide also has become my entry key into the developing field of “public health and preventive psychiatry,” which involves combining public health and mental health perspectives to work with communities, agencies, and providers to develop novel approaches to delivering health care while promoting mental health. Recently we have received support from CDC to develop the Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention (ICRC-S), a center-without-walls, to more fully develop an integration of public health and mental health perspectives to advance suicide prevention efforts in communities and for vulnerable groups and individuals.