Since the United Nations first called for the development of national strategies for suicide prevention, many nations have developed and implemented national plans to reduce suicide.While such plans often rely on the results of randomized controlled trials of suicide prevention research to guide their efforts, they are not amenable themselves for evaluation through randomized controlled trials.It is therefore of particular importance that nations share what they have learned from their implementation effort with each other.Sufficient experience has now been gained to begin to assess the impact of such strategies, and to utilize the knowledge gained to further improve such national efforts.This symposium will examine the implementation of national strategies in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark as well as the knowledge gained and how this has been used to improve the impact of national strategies.