Training Information
A. Background
Mental Health America of Wisconsin (MHA), with support through a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services/Division of Care and Treatment Services, is inviting applications from eligible entities to participate in the 14th Annual Wisconsin Zero Suicide Training (WZST) and subsequent monthly learning community. Zero Suicide is a long-term commitment to quality improvement that includes both a cultural shift and a set of best practices in addressing suicide prevention within health and behavioral health care organizations. Zero Suicide presents an aspirational challenge and practical framework for system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care. Successful implementation of the Zero Suicide framework requires assessing your current organizational culture to understand your readiness to enact the necessary changes, a commitment to make appropriate allocation of human and financial resources over time to realize identified opportunities, and a reassessment to determine system-wide impact.
Zero Suicide operationalizes the core components necessary for health care systems to transform suicide care into seven elements. See the Zero Suicide Toolkit and seven elements here: https://zerosuicide.edc.org/toolkit/zero-suicide-toolkit. Learn more about Zero Suicide efforts in Wisconsin that build on work that MHA has been doing since 2013 here: https://www.preventsuicidewi.org/zero-suicide.
B. Eligibility
Eligible Organizations: Eligible organizations are health care or behavioral health organizations committed to adopting and implementing the Zero Suicide framework and whose client population includes adults with Serious Mental Illness or youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance.
A wide variety of organization types are welcome to apply. Some examples include:
- Health maintenance organizations
- Hospitals or hospital systems
- County human service programs, including mental health/substance use, crisis intervention services, community support programs, etc.
- Other public/private outpatient mental health/behavioral health programs
- Local health departments
- Federally qualified health centers
- Veterans Administration hospitals or clinics or WI Department of Veterans Affairs facilities
- Campus counseling centers
- Long-term care facilities
C. Training Description
The live online three-day training includes presentations from state and national Zero Suicide faculty on the seven elements of the Zero Suicide framework, suicide care resources and tools, examples of different types of organizations that have implemented the Zero Suicide framework, and breakout group implementation planning sessions. Teams will be supported by faculty in developing action plans to begin this process.
Prior to the three-day training all teams must attend an Introduction to Wisconsin Zero Suicide Zoom session on Wednesday July 22, 2026 from 10:00am-12:00pm.
The training will run from approximately 9:00 am - 2:00 pm CT July 28-July 30. A detailed agenda will be provided to those accepted into the training. Calendar invitations with Zoom meeting links and phone lines to connect will be sent to all participants for both the introduction session and training.