Four Pines Fund

Better Approaches to

Suicide Care Exist

Better Approaches to

Suicide Care Exist

Better Approaches to

Suicide Care Exist

Better Approaches to

Suicide Care Exist

We envision a future in which people struggling with suicidal feelings have access to the lifesaving care and treatment they deserve.

When people with suicidal thoughts seek health care, they rightfully assume their providers will be prepared to give them the most effective care available.

Many who die by suicide seek support from doctors, therapists, emergency rooms, or other health care settings in the months before they die. These are important intervention points.

When people with suicidal thoughts seek health care, they rightfully assume their providers will be prepared to give them the most effective care available.

Many who die by suicide seek support from doctors, therapists, emergency rooms, or other health care settings in the months before they die. These are important intervention points.

Too often, however, clinical providers are unfamiliar with the research, programs, and best practices that most effectively help people recover from suicidal crises.

When providers are undertrained or undersupported to provide the most effective care, they become overreliant on emergency departments and hospitalization, which are expensive and often ineffective approaches to suicide care.

Too often, however, clinical providers are unfamiliar with the research, programs, and best practices that most effectively help people recover from suicidal crises.

We are driven to improve the resources available to people with thoughts of suicide and their families so that when they look for help, they have every opportunity to receive care that works.

After losing a son to suicide, the founders of the Four Pines Fund dedicated themselves to figuring out how they could best prevent additional death by suicide.

The Four Pines Fund is a national grantmaking family foundation established in 2023. Its founders, both medical doctors, believe that better pathways to suicide care can and must be built—and that expanding access to research-based, effective treatment and support for suicidal people and their loved ones will help them recover and heal.

Our Impact Areas

To date, we have focused on the following three impact areas, primarily in Vermont. We’re now expanding our work in Vermont and nationally to include support for advocacy, research, education, and other efforts that will accelerate the adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices for suicide care. Stay tuned for more.

Clinician Competency

Improving the competence and confidence of clinicians and specialists.

We invest in programs that help health care learners and clinicians gain the skills, comfort and competencies to effectively treat and care for people struggling with suicide. We look for innovative ways to support providers who are willing to pursue advanced training in suicide care. We aspire to build the next generation of leaders in the field.

Evidence-Based Treatments

evidence-based treatments

Expanding access to effective and evidence-based treatments.

We want people to understand that there are a variety of evidence-based treatments for suicidality. We aim to ensure streamlined access to providers skilled in these effective approaches so that when a need is identified, people know how to find this advanced care and can receive it when and where they need it.

Integrated Services

integrated services

Creating and strengthening a network of coordinated, suicide-related care options.

We aim to transform how health and mental health systems prioritize suicide treatment beyond screening and risk assessment. We believe that the best way to support people at risk of suicide is through a robust and coordinated network of services that provides high-quality treatments, referral services, follow-up care, and access to people with lived experience and peer support.

Our Grantmaking Values

We look for opportunities that create national best practices and set new standards of excellence.

We respect the expertise of our grantees, co-funders, and thought partners.

We seek to close existing gaps, barriers, and weaknesses in systems of care.

We support approaches that are grounded in equity, responsive to individual needs, and culturally sensitive.

We fund projects that are data driven and express clear plans for evaluating effectiveness.

We build enduring partnerships with a wide variety of groups working in the field.

We hope to increase cohesion and coordination among individuals and organizations working to reduce suicide.

We value the contributions and perspectives of people with lived experience and their families.