Teen Suicide: The Tragedy is Preventable
Currently, suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year-olds and the sixth leading cause of death for 5 to 14 years-olds. Experts estimate that nearly 5,000 teenagers commit suicide every year and that for every suicide, there are 50 to 100 attempts. These statistics raise concerns among parents, teachers and teenagers nationwide who all want to know what they can do to prevent such a tragedy.
According to Kim Kates, Community Education and Outreach Coordinator for Samaritans of Boston (the first Samaritan branch in the United States), the teenage years are filled with a lot of decisions and teens lack the experience to realize that they will get through difficult times. In addition, society is increasingly becoming more isolated with the advent of technology, which adds to the challenge of fitting in. It is a feeling of isolation and hopelessness that Kates and others who work to prevent suicide find is the prevailing feeling among the youth who are suicidal.
When youth feel as though they have no one to turn to for help, some turn to drugs or alcohol. Others act out violently to vent their frustration. According to Douglas Jacobs, MD, Executive Director of Screening for Mental Health, which is national nonprofit organization that runs large-scale screening programs for various mental health disorders, depression among young people manifests itself in behavior problems.
Depression v. “The Blues”
Depression is common among teenagers and those who have this illness, in addition to acting out their feeling or abusing substances, are at high risk for suicide. The good news is that depression is treatable; many times, however, it goes undiagnosed. Jacobs explains that depression is different from the occasional mood swing and suicide is usually the outcome of a mental illness that has gone untreated, such as depression.
An occasional mood swing or having “the blues” is a normal reaction to life situations such as sadness or grief from the loss of a loved one. Clinical depression is a whole body illness with multiple moods, thoughts and bodily functions. “The blues” are brief, whereas depression persists. “The blues” rarely produce suicidal thoughts, but depression can result in suicide. “The blues” can be cured with a good listener and/or time to heal. Depression responds to specific medication and/or psychotherapy.
First Step in Prevention
According to Alan Berman, Ph.D., Executive Director of the American Association of Suicidology, the first order of prevention is observation. “The lay person is fully capable of recognizing when a young person is in trouble,” he said. Out of every ten people who kill themselves, eight gave clues to their intentions, according to Kates.
The following are a list of warning signs from The Samaritans of Boston. Even understanding clues may not completely reduce the risk of suicide among teens. Unfortunately, when a community experiences a suicide there is a fear that a contagion effect may occur, which would result in a cluster of suicides. “It’s important that teenagers not identify with another suicide because they don’t know the whole story,” said Jacobs. Suicide is never the result of one incident; it is usually a combination of factors including a mental illness. If that information is not clearly explained, especially to a student body that has lost a peer, there is a risk of misinterpretation.
According to Berman, contagion occurs in five percent of suicide cases. If a celebrity commits suicide there may be a non-specific loss of hope attached to the incident. This is when a youth assumes that since this celebrity couldn’t “hack it” then what hope do they have, he said. There is also a potential for modeling through identifying with the individual that took his or her own life.
What Schools Can Do
In addition to recognizing warning signs, schools should have prevention resources available to students. Both Berman and Jacobs believe that schools should screen students for mental health, just as they do for physical health. According to Berman, 40 percent of school violence cases in the last decade involved young people who showed visible warning signs for suicide.
However, Jacobs warns that schools should talk about the problem of suicide unless it is in the context of a specific program that also offers resources to students.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Youth Suicide Prevention Programs: A Resource Guide, acknowledged eight suicide prevention strategies as a framework to evaluate existing programs. These programs had two themes in common: 1. strategies to identify and refer suicidal adolescents and young adults for mental health care 2. strategies to address known or suspected risk factors for suicide among adolescents and young adults.
The following are the eight prevention strategies noted in the guide:
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