SPiER at Zero Overdose Receives Four Pines Fund Support to Strengthen Suicide-Safer Care Through Health Technology

Support from Four Pines Fund will help SPiER advance national efforts to improve how health technology systems support suicide prevention and care.

TILLSON, NY, UNITED STATES, June 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- SPiER at Zero Overdose has received support from Four Pines Fund to advance its work strengthening suicide-safer care through health technology. The funding will support efforts to improve how critical suicide-related information is captured, shared, and used across the systems organizations and care teams use.

Every day, millions of people receive services through health care, behavioral health, and community-based organizations that rely on electronic health records, health information exchanges, and other technology systems. Yet critical suicide-related information often remains fragmented across those systems, limiting providers' ability to access important information when individuals move between care settings. As a result, opportunities to identify risk, coordinate support, and maintain continuity of care can be lost.

“SPiER is built on the simple premise that effective suicide care should not depend on workarounds. Care teams need systems that make risk information visible, support the next step, and help people stay connected across settings. This work is about bridging suicide prevention and health technology so the systems surrounding care support the practices we know can help keep people safe,” said Virna Little, PsyD, LCSW-R, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zero Overdose.

The support from Four Pines Fund will help SPiER continue identifying system gaps, developing practical guidance, supporting health technology improvements, and advancing approaches that make suicide-safer care easier to implement across diverse settings. By addressing challenges at the foundational technology level, SPiER is helping create solutions that can be adopted across electronic health records, health information exchanges, and care organizations nationwide, expanding the reach of evidence-based suicide prevention practices to millions of people and the providers who serve them.

“SPiER looks at the whole picture: what the technology already supports, where workflows break down, what information needs to move with the person, and what organizations need to enable suicide-safer care in daily practice. By working with technology vendors at the foundational system level, SPiER helps move this work beyond one-off local builds, so more organizations can access suicide-safer care support without rebuilding site by site,” said Kelly Samuelson, MSW, LADC, Project Director for SPiER at Zero Overdose.

By strengthening the technology and information-sharing systems that support care, SPiER is helping lay the groundwork for a future in which critical suicide-related information moves more effectively across care settings, providers have access to the information they need when they need it, and evidence-based suicide prevention practices can be implemented consistently at scale nationwide.

This program is supported by Four Pines Fund, a philanthropic organization dedicated to expanding access to effective suicide care to all who need it. Our effort is one of a collective of five grants made by Four Pines Fund in 2026 to accelerate the national implementation of effective suicide care practices in health organizations. For more information, visit www.fourpines.org.

About SPiER
SPiER, an initiative of Zero Overdose, is a national nonprofit dedicated to preventing overdose and suicide-related harm through evidence-based practices. It works to strengthen the systems that support suicide prevention by improving how critical information is identified, shared, and used across organizations, providers, and care settings. SPiER collaborates with health organizations, technology vendors, health information exchanges, and implementation partners to identify system gaps, develop practical guidance, support technology and workflow improvements, and help implement evidence-based suicide prevention practices at scale. Learn more at theSPiERproject.org.

Kelly Samuelson
SPiER at Zero Overdose
+1 314-266-9026
spier@zerooverdose.org
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