After the hurricanes, suicide prevention needed its own campaign

The situation. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were still recovering from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Disaster recovery isn't only physical, and the CDC-funded preparedness work in both territories included short campaigns on suicide prevention. Each was built with the territory's behavioral health agency.

What I did. I directed both campaigns as part of the preparedness portfolio described in the previous case study.

Puerto Rico: Elijo Vivir (I Choose to Live). The campaign ran with the Puerto Rico Administration of Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services (ASSMCA). The first round ran for four weeks in 2019. It opened on Aug. 9 with a center spread in El Vocero and a livestreamed event at the coliseum in Guaynabo that reached 42,000 people. That round ran six newspaper ads, three digital ads, three radio ads on SBS and four TV ads on WAPA-TV. It closed on Sept. 10, World Suicide Prevention Day, with an event in Cataño with the Commission on Suicide Prevention. A six-week round followed in 2020. It ran 10 newspaper ads in El Vocero, including a center spread, banners and a video on elvocero.com, four digital billboards and 162 spots on WAPA-TV. Across both rounds, the campaign reached 3.3 million people.

U.S. Virgin Islands: Let's Talk. The campaign ran with the Department of Behavioral Health. It launched on Nov. 17, 2019, for five weeks and focused on three groups: men 25 and older, young people 16 to 25, and seniors. It included five weeks of newspaper ads, three radio show interviews, 11 social media posts and a behavioral health town hall. Five vinyl banners hung in community parks, and six ads ran in the Daily News and the St. Croix Avis. The campaign reached 60,000 people.