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• Section One: Mission of the Steering Committee
• Section Two: Role, Structure, and Selection of the Steering Committee
• Section Three: Role, Structure, and Selection of Subcommittees
• Section Four: Routine Operations and Frequency of Meetings for the Steering Committee and Subcommittees
• Section Five: Honoraria and Travel Expenses for Steering Committee and Subcommittee Members
• Section Six: Member Replacement and The Nomination Process

As an integral component of the National Suicide Prevention Initiative, the mission of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network is: to reduce suicide nationally by providing a vehicle for hope and hopefulness to individuals suffering from mental illness and/or who are in psychological pain; to promote access to information, treatment and other resources that can enhance coping skills and address the underlying factors that can lead to suicidal behavior.

In turn, the mission of the Steering Committee for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is to provide recommendations and advisement that support Lifeline’s overall mission, and will enhance its capacity to effectively reach and serve persons that could be potentially suicidal throughout the United States.

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Role overview.

The role of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee is to provide the network’s primary investigators/administrators-- Link2Health Solutions, Inc. (L2H) - with expert guidance on the issues that affect the SAMHSA- funded National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network, its administration, the crisis center community and its consumers. The Steering Committee will serve as a collective voice representing a broad spectrum of key stakeholders in the area of suicide prevention, ensuring that the Lifeline’s operations and activities are informed by a full, balanced range of experienced viewpoints that are invested in its mission. The Steering Committee will provide a forum for review and discussion of reports from the network’s administration, its evaluation team, the subcommittees and workgroups, as well as any promotional materials, research, legislation or other external factors that may affect the vital operations of this network. The Steering Committee’s recommendations will support the continued advancement and development of the hotline network towards more effectively accomplishing its mission, as noted above.

Structure of Committee roles. The members of the Steering Committee shall act in accordance with their prescribed roles and in the manner that is appropriate to the leadership of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (eg: represent the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s mission and goals as defined). The Chair of the Steering Committee is selected by the network’s Executive Leadership Team. The Chair will, in turn, provide leadership in conducting the activities of the group and shall oversee the function of the committee, subcommittees (as needed) and subsequent workgroups (as needed) and assure compliance with such. The Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee (to also be appointed by the Executive Leadership Team) will act as the Chair in his/her absence for regularly scheduled Steering Committee activities and functions. The Secretary of the Steering Committee (ELT-appointed) will assure that proper documentation, including minutes of Steering Committee meetings, subcommittee meetings, and reports (including work group reports) are available to the Steering Committee and the Administration of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Each Steering Committee member must be able to participate in at least half of the officially-scheduled meetings or conference calls to retain their role as a member.

Selection of the steering committee. The Steering Committee has one representative from each member of the program’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) : the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); the SAMHSA’s contracted marketing firm for this project, Social and Health Services, Ltd.; the primary investigator, Link2Health; and L2H ’s partners, the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), and one representative from the project’s evaluation team from either Columbia University’s Research Foundation for Mental Health or Rutgers Graduate School for Applied and Professional Psychology. In addition to representatives from the network’s Executive Leadership Team, the Steering Committee consists of a minimum of 8 members and a maximum of 11 members chosen for a three year term. This total number of selected members is limited to a size that eliminates the excess formality required for a larger group, so that productive discussion can proceed. The Committee represents individuals and groups with a variety of roles within the suicide prevention community, allowing for a cross section of representation from varied geographic and demographic areas (e.g., regional location, size of crisis center and affiliation, urban and rural, ethnicity, gender, etc.).

Selection of committee members is weighted by such factors as: persons with greater experience in work related to suicide prevention; persons already recognized as leaders within key groups with a stake in suicide prevention; and those satisfying overlapping (more than one) of the demographic and experiential criteria noted within the list below. Membership representation areas may include:

• Researchers and experts in suicidology (e.g.,legislative)
• Representatives with an interest or history of work in suicidology (such as experts in certification, experts in quality review, and epidemiologists)
• Advocacy groups
• Consumers/recipients from the "consumers of behavioral health services of behavioral health services" community
• Crisis centers
• Suicide survivors groups
• State mental health program directors
• Minority groups
• Teen and adolescent suicide prevention representatives
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community representatives.

The Executive Leadership Team will exercise a majority vote to determine Steering Committee membership for any person(s) nominated.

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In an effort to draw upon the expertise of the various crisis centers and stake holders in the areas of key interest as noted above, subcommittees will be formed. The following two standing subcommittees will be created: a Certification and Training Subcommittee and a Consumer/Recipients Subcommittee. Each subcommittee has a Chair, who is selected by the project’s Executive Leadership Team. Each subcommittee chair will also serve as a member of the Steering Committee, to which he/she will provide subcommittee reports, recommendations and act as an overall liaison between the two bodies.

The Steering Committee and subcommittees may, in turn, designate work groups when the scope of issues is so broad and/or extensive that they require additional input and work process from experts, members of the network, and others in the suicidology community. Additionally, on an as needed basis, Subcommittee and Steering Committee members may recommend consultation from outside sources who exhibit expertise or knowledge of import to the issues before the Steering Committee.

Subcommittee membership will include no less than 6 where possible, and no more than 8 members.

The Certification and Training Subcommittee will work to identify and recommend essential, minimum standards for network member center credentialing and quality service, as well as accompanying best practices trainings to support the maintenance of these recommended standards, where needed. Recommendations will be derived from prevailing research and the experience of subcommittee members, and will be approved through the majority of the subcommittee membership prior to presenting to the Steering Committee. Membership representation may include:

• Experts in credentialing and/or certification of call centers, health and mental health organizations
• Crisis center directors
• Experts/researchers in suicidology
• Experts in competence-based training and evaluation of training

The Consumer/Recipients Subcommittee will review standard network practices, marketing materials/promotional campaigns, evaluations of network coverage and caller demographics to ensure that the Lifeline is effectively reaching critical populations at higher risk for suicide. Recommendations to the Steering Committee will be derived from a majority vote of the subcommittee membership. Membership representation may include:

• Survivors (spouse, friend or family of persons that completed suicide)
• Persons with serious mental illness
• Attempters of suicide
• Variety of age groups (teen, adult, older person)
• Key ethnic groups (e.g., American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino, Asian, African American, etc.)
• Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender

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The Steering Committee will function in a manner that allows for the efficient management of the various issues that the network will be called upon to address by utilizing the revised Robert’s Rules pertaining to small groups. These guidelines offer the operational description as that of “members of the organization meeting with the idea of getting something done and (in this case) acting as a committee in full and free discussion, courses of action to be taken in the name of the entire group.” The common purpose of these meetings implies that the gatherings are collegial and not contentious, assuring that all points of view are heard and that there can be no question about fairness and propriety of the outcome.

The Steering Committee will be charged with making recommendations to Link2Health, based on the feedback and research of the subcommittees and workgroups determined as appropriate to the issues at hand. Link2Health, while working in consultation with the Steering Committee and its partners, shall have primary decision making authority in the matter of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network, with final approval of decisions reserved for SAMHSA.

The Steering Committee will convene quarterly (at least two face-to-face meetings) during the first two years of the grant and will schedule meetings to run concurrently with other suicide prevention related events (e.g., SPRC conference, AAS conference, etc.) Ad hoc meetings will be convened as necessary, particularly during the early stages of the grant period when SAMHSA may require more involvement from the Committee. In the third year of the grant, standing meetings will be determined by the Committee in consultation with Link2Health and SAMHSA.

Subcommittees will meet no less than three times per year during the first two years of this grant period. Ad hoc meetings for these subcommittees may occur more frequently in the first year of the grant in order to attend to start-up issues central to network activities. Although chair persons of the subcommittees are expected to attend Steering Committee meetings as previously indicated, they may designate a subcommittee member to report on their behalf in the event they will be absent from the Steering Committee meeting. Conference calls may be convened among subcommittee and work group members as necessary either to conduct standing meetings or as a supplement to standing meetings, as needed.

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For members participating in face-to-face steering committee and subcommittee meetings, an honorarium of $400 and reasonable travel expenses will be paid and arranged through SAMHSA and Link2Health for each participant, in compliance with Federal travel regulations. For committee conference calls arranged by Link2Health or SAMHSA, an honorarium of $150 per participant will be provided.

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Steering and Subcommittee seats may become available through a variety of means. Some examples include: a member leaves on his/her own volition; a member is asked to leave due to insufficient attendance, and/or behavior that significantly disrupts committee business, and/or is not in the best interests of the project’s mission, goals and objectives; or the committee determines additional representation is needed. Removal of members is determined by an 80% majority vote of the full committee, excluding the vote of the individual in question. For subcommittee member removal, an 80% majority vote must first be attained before a recommendation for removal is brought to the Steering Committee, upon which it must then be approved through another 80% majority vote.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering and Subcommittee member selection process may occur either through recommendations of standing committee members, an open call for nominations from crisis centers and other key stakeholders in the suicide prevention community, or both. From the subsequent field of nominees, the Executive Leadership Team (consisting of key personnel from Link2Health, SAMHSA, SHS, Ltd., NASMHPD, Rutgers Graduate School of Professional Psychology and Columbia University’s Research Foundation for Mental Health) will make the final selections of Steering and/or Subcommittee members.

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