Heroes Inspire
Every day, public health professionals are working in the gaps-between healthy and harmed, between root causes and crises. They remain relentlessly focused on closing the distance between the communities they serve and the vibrant futures they hope to build. It's not easy but dedicated public health practitioners are standing tall and finding success.
They're working together to help prevent devastating health challenges such as suicide, overdoses, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) before they happen. Explore their stories to get inspired and leverage what they've learned in your own community.


A Whole Community Approach
Right now, public health programs are making a difference. They're working toward ambitious jurisdiction-wide goals with an innovative, two-part approach. It starts with building a whole public health community by encouraging interagency and public-plus-private collaborations that bring together new perspectives and skill sets in pursuit of common goals.
Investing in primary prevention efforts can help whole communities prevent trauma and its consequences by improving the conditions in which people live, work, and grow. Explore the success stories below to see how communities are harnessing this innovative approach to create lasting change.
See the Progress, Place by Place
Small but Mighty
Yolanda on Building Life-Saving Skills Online
Staying up to date on suicide prevention best practices isn't easy for busy health professionals. For Yolanda, the Commission's online workshops provided the training she needed to help others and reduce suicide-related stigma.
Creating online training courses and materials for a wide variety of audiences-community leaders and partners, first responders and media professionals, and those affected by the risk of suicide-extended the Commission's reach without overextending their team.
By January 2021, Puerto Rico's Commission on Suicide Prevention was just three staff members strong. Despite this challenge, their work and dedication never stopped. Through hurricanes and a global pandemic, they managed to change the landscape for suicide prevention work and reach those who needed them the most.
In 2017, Puerto Rico was struck by two major hurricanes. Two years later, residents were still trying to cope and recover from the devastation. That's when earthquakes and a global pandemic arrived.
Learn How Disasters Have Shaped Suicide in Puerto RicoBefore developing their own virtual training tools, Puerto Rico's suicide prevention team spent countless hours crisscrossing the island to host the large local events plotted on the map above. By taking their expertise online, learning became accessible to all 78 municipalities while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Meeting Challenges with Closeness & Creativity
Find out how Puerto Rico's suicide prevention team overcame the odds by reframing challenges and focusing on collaboration.
A Small but Mighty Team
From left to right: Janice E. Viera Colon, PhD | Project Manager, Nayda I. Roman Vazquez, PhD | Director, Arish M. Sanchez Shwaiki, BA | Program Coordinator, Maria I. Coss Guzman, PhD | Clinical Pscyhology Consultant
Making the Connection
A young father grappling with thoughts of suicide. A mother searching for help to manage her substance use safely. A child suffering abuse and neglect in silence. To many, these health challenges may seem as isolated from each other as the lives they affect. But public health workers know that suicide, overdose, and ACEs are connected-by shared risk and protective factors, and by the root causes of trauma. Helping individuals and families live happy, healthy lives means implementing new an innovative programs that address these issues holistically.
Working together, state, territorial, and freely associated state health agencies can play a crucial role in advancing prevention at the intersection of suicide, overdose, and ACEs by addressing root causes, connecting community needs, and reducing stigma and health disparities.
"When we put families at the center of our shared work, we can do amazing things that transcend silos and turf. The more teams work together and innovate, the better our solutions will be."
- Michael Fraser, PhD, MS, CAE, FCPP, ASTHO Chief Executive Officer
Explore More Ways to Close the Distance
Share Your Story
Your work truly makes a positive impact, and we want to hear about it. Share your story and become a source of inspiration for public health professionals striving to make a difference.
Additional Florida Resources
Suicide Prevention | Florida Department of Health
Overdose Data to Action | Florida Department of Health
Adverse Childhood Experiences in FL Adults | Florida Department of Health
Additional Puerto Rico Resources
Suicide Prevention | Government of Puerto Rico
Suicide Prevention Commission Staff Directory | Government of Puerto Rico
This project was made possible by the OT18-1802 Cooperative Agreement, award #6 NU38OT000290-04-01 from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the CDC.