Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Suicide Prevention

1.0 hour
MCBAP-R: 1
Skip to Course

This course was created and provided by the Virtual Center of Excellence (VCE), a former project of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN). Content and format will be updated in the near future to address current accessibility standards. If you are unable to access the content in this section, please contact the imp support team for assistance.

This supplemental training by Alexander E. Crosby, MD, MPH, provides information relative to the fundamental definition of suicide and its notable impact on public health. As well, participants will observe a comprehensive discussion on the misuse of alcohol and how it's an association with suicide has varied implications relative to both ethnicity and race. Participants will learn how to use the National Violent Reporting System as an informative resource for suicide data. This would be appropriate for CMHP.

Suicide as a Systemic Problem Across Communities

This course presents information regarding the prevalence of suicide across communities, ethnic groups and cohorts like veterans. This course has been designed to provide direct care workers with information regarding suicide rates and best practices for working with clients that show warning signs of this behavior. 

Substance Use and Suicide

Participants of this course will be provided with statistics and evidence-based research regarding the prevalence of suicide as it results in substance use and abuse. This topic has developed using alcohol as the main substance and provides information regarding how alcohol impacts the suicide rate across multiple ethnic groups. 

The National Violent Death Reporting System

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is a tool and resources provided by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to provide data on violent deaths to assist in the changing of this behavior. This course provides information regarding navigating the resource and characterizing behavior and deaths to better support positive community change and suicide prevention. 

Alex E. Crosby

MD, MPH

Alex E. Crosby, MD, MPH, was born in Highland Park, Michigan and raised in Detroit. Dr. Crosby is currently a medical epidemiologist on the Surveillance Team in the Etiology and Surveillance Branch (ESB) of the Division of Violence Prevention. He began his career at CDC in July 1991 where he served in a variety of capacities at DVP/NCIPC including Team Leader for the Youth Violence and Suicide Prevention Team in DVP, Surveillance Team leader of ESB, and Branch Chief. During his career he has responded to numerous public health emergencies and led investigative teams, addressing adolescent suicide clusters, civil unrest, school-associated violence, sniper attacks, firearm-related injuries due to celebratory shooting. He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, government publications, and textbook chapters. He is frequently consulted on the subjects of suicidal behavior prevention and surveillance by US and international organizations, including the Department of Defense, the Public Health Service Surgeon General's Office, Ministries of Health, and the Pan American Health Organization. 

Dr. Crosby received his BA in chemistry from Fisk University in Nashville, his MD from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC, and his MPH in Health Policy and Management from Emory University School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia.

Course Progress

Course Content

This content is unavailable

Enroll in the course to access

Enroll in this Course

What People Are Saying

I found this to be incredibly relevant and valuable to my work. Excellent!"
Photo of person giving the testimonial - Nick K.