STMSS18 - Dr. Keita Franklin - Systems Approach to Suicide Prevention

Dr. Keita Franklin, nationally recongized suicide prevention expert and Chief Clinical Officer at Psych Hub, joins the show to discuss how taking a systems approach to suicide prevention can help us impact suicide in the military affiliated population
Keita Franklin, LCSW, PhD, is the Chief Clinical Officer at Psych Hub, the Co-Director of the Columbia Lighthouse Project at Columbia University and consults with Leidos Health Group. In her capacity as Psych Hub’s Chief Clinical Officer, she serves as a key member of the executive team overseeing the development and production of all clinical content for Psych Hub’s ever-expanding repository of educational videos and informational materials. A nationally-recognized expert, Dr. Franklin, ensures all clinical content is on the cutting edge of the intersection between health care and information technology. Key to Psych Hub’s goal of revolutionizing how mental health care education and training is delivered, Dr. Franklin leads the esteemed Psych Hub clinical team, ensuring all Psych Hub products are evidence-based and trauma-informed.

Before joining Psych Hub, Dr. Franklin served as a senior executive at both the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense. In these roles, Dr. Franklin served as the principal advisor to Department leadership for all matters on suicide prevention, and she is widely credited with leading a transformative, enterprise-wide shift from a crisis intervention posture to an upstream, broad public policy approach focused on continuous surveillance and early prevention. Dr. Franklin was also responsible for leading a multi-disciplined team of experts in advancing evidence-based prevention practices for over 20 million Veterans and reaching our Nation’s heroes wherever they live, work, thrive, and receive care. A poised and articulate communicator of strategic messaging, Dr. Franklin has been frequently asked to testify before committees in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and led numerous caucus roundtable discussions with members of Congress.

While serving as a senior executive within the Department of Defense, Dr. Franklin was responsible for suicide prevention policy, programs, and oversight. During her tenure, she conducted a first-of-its-kind comprehensive, program review and authored new DoD policy directives and instructions, optimizing higher headquarter guidance for all military service branches. She also chaired several DoD senior leader committees charged with developing solutions for vexing mental health issues impacting our service members and their families.

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