Finalists Coming October 13!
Go back

Just Before It Happened: Using Psychological Autopsies to Prevent Suicide

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health PROJECT
Just Before It Happened: Using Psychological Autopsies to Prevent Suicide by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

credits

Title
  • Just Before It Happened: Using Psychological Autopsies to Prevent Suicide
Entrant
  • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

About This Project

Summary

Firearms are used in half of suicides among young people, but little is known about why, or how to prevent these deaths. To find answers, researchers are using psychological autopsies—in-depth interviews with families and friends—to piece together detailed timelines preceding the suicides of young people who took their lives using firearms. This story weaves together perspectives of researchers and family members to raise awareness of the problem of youth firearm suicide and potential solutions.

Goals & Objectives

We aimed to highlight researchers’ work to improve suicide prevention strategies, which could inform better policy and outreach programs. We also sought to engage readers to raise their awareness of the problem, as family-owned firearms were used in more than two-thirds of the suicides examined.

Results & Impact

This story reached 30K+ print readers, 40K+ email readers, 950K+ social media followers, and 90K+ newsletter readers.

the team

Jackie Powder
  • Writer and Associate Editor
Dung Hoang
  • Illustrator
Lymari Morales
  • Associate Dean, Communications & Marketing
Brian W. Simpson
  • Editor-in-Chief
Melissa Hartman
  • Managing Editor
Morgan Coulson
  • Editorial Associate
David Croft
  • Graphics Team
Hitomi Kuromoto
  • Graphics Team
Annie Abraham
  • Digital Team
Carlos Ballena
  • Digital Team
Jonathan Herndon
  • Digital Team
Aaron Madhavan
  • Digital Team
Patrick Kirchner
  • Dog Ear Creative, Art Direction & Design