Roots of Hope Case Study – Comprehensive/Span the Continuum

Comprehensive guiding principle: Use multiple interventions geared toward a wide range of individuals across a variety
of settings.

Span the continuum guiding principle: Address suicide across the entire spectrum, including prevention, intervention, and postvention services.

The Comprehensive and Span the Continuum guiding principles put the focus on how each community’s uniqueness — including its needs, strengths, and strategic partners — reflects the way the Roots of Hope model is designed and implemented. These principles also ensure that the model is consistent, in spite of various adaptations each community makes.

Project leads identified two key themes in connection with these principles:

1. Being comprehensive is paradoxical — A certain tension can arise any time an initiative seeks to be comprehensive while being focused, targeted, and responsive to community needs.
2. Think holistically about spanning the continuum — Beyond what is needed for prevention, intervention, and postvention activities, consider the groups most affected by suicide and suicide attempts.

This case study offers examples of how local project leads applied these themes, along with the insights they gained and the recommendations they thought future Roots of Hope communities might adapt, according to their needs.

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