Montana's CAST-S: The Montana Crisis Action School Toolkit on Suicide

The Montana Crisis Action School Toolkit on Suicide (Montana CAST-S) was developed in a collaboration between the Big Sky Council and NAMI Montana to support Montana school communities in meeting requirements of Montana state legislative statutes HB381 (2017) and HB374 (2015). The Montana CAST-S was originally published in 2017 and was updated in 2022.

The goal in the creation of CAST-S was to support each school district and their communities to have access to much needed resources in developing their own protocols and crisis plan for preventing and addressing youth suicides. The CAST-S is a free resource for all Montana school leaders and staff. The Risk Monitoring Tool in the CAST-S is from the book, Suicide in Schools, by Erbacher, Singer and Poland which is an excellent resource for schools. Mental health and suicide prevention leaders from across Montana have been interviewed and have provided input in this suicide prevention toolkit, which is based on best practices in suicide prevention for schools.