Suicide by Young People Today

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Suicide Prevention Training Project

Today, suicide is a major public health problem, accounting for more than 36,000 deaths in the United States each year (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). If fact, deaths from suicides cause as many fatalities as AIDS and homicide combined (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). Moreover, the overwhelming majority (90%) of people who commit suicide each year suffer from a diagnosable mental health condition, but fewer than 30% seek treatment for their problems (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). To determine how middle schools administrators can help prevent suicides by young people, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning suicide prevention in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview

The statistics concerning youth suicides are truly alarming. Every year, 33% of the school districts in the United States lose one of their students due to suicide, and in some cases the act is carried out on school grounds (The Safe School helpline, 2014). Moreover, suicide rates for young people have tripled over the past 3 decades (The Safe School helpline, 2014). In fact, every day, approximately 14 individual aged 15 to 24 years commit suicide, meaning that nearly 5,000 young people commit suicide each year (The Safe School helpline, 2014). If these statistics are not chilling enough, research shows that for every young person that commits suicide, one hundred more will make the attempt (The Safe School helpline, 2014).

These statistics are all the more troubling since suicide is preventable (The Safe School helpline, 2014). According to one authority, "Most suicidal persons desperately want to live. They are just unable to find alternatives to their problems. Suicide is the third leading killer of 14- to 19-year-olds in the United States, yet only one in 10 schools has a plan to prevent it" (The Safe School helpline, 2014, para. 2). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the percentage of states that current require primary schools to teach about suicide prevention, though, increased from 26.0% in 2000 to 44.0% in 2006 (Suicide prevention, 2014). Nevertheless, the amount of training that students in American middle schools receive concerning suicide prevention is still dismally low. In this regard, the CDC also reports that, "Among courses in which suicide prevention was taught, the median number of hours of required instruction teachers provided on suicide prevention was 0.4 hours among middle school courses" (2014, p. 2). Developing, implementing and administering an effective suicide prevention program in middle schools can help prevent suicides by young people, but it is important to understand the challenges that are involved, and these issues are discussed further below.

Challenges Facing Middle School Administrators

One of the most significant challenges facing middle school administrators seeking to develop an informed and timely suicide prevention program is public awareness of the problem to reduce the stigma that is associated with the problem. For instance, O'Connor and Platt (2011) report that, "This becomes a particular challenge where an aim of a campaign includes efforts to reduce stigma associated with mental disorders along with suicide prevention awareness" (p. 579). Middle school administrators should also be aware of the warning signs of suicide (see below) and that although depression can lead to suicide, young people taking antidepressants are at greater risk of committing suicide (O'Connor & Platt, 2011). According to O'Connor and Platt, "This is of concern and highlights the challenge confronting the individual aced with the assessment and management of depression, particularly in young persons" (2011, p. 467). Likewise, young people who engage in substance abusing behaviors are also at greater risk of committing suicide (Hisgen, 2011). Finally, prior to implementing a suicide prevention program, it is vitally important to get parents involved in the process and to keep the informed of its importance. In this regard, Hisgen reports that, "This can be done in a variety of ways, including having your students develop brochures to give to their parents to increase awareness of the knowledge and skills your students are learning" (2011, p. 11).

Besides students and parents, it is also important to get the entire school staff and community-based resources on board with a suicide prevention program. For example, Hisgen adds that, "Because of the importance of this critical health issue, it is of great value to share this unit with school staff and community agencies that are connected to youth suicide prevention and intervention services" (2011, p. 11). In addition, it is also important to ensure that school staff members understand the information that will be shared with students.

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As Hisgen emphasizes, "It is critical that everyone working in a school understand the key pieces of knowledge and skills the students will be learning. Suicide prevention can be enhanced through common language, effective intervention strategies, and community commitment" (2011, p. 11).

There are numerous valuable resources available to middle school administrators for school-based suicide prevention programs, including the following:

Screening for Mental Health: http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/

Suicide Prevention Resource Center: http://www.sprc.org/

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration: http://store.samhsa.gov/home

School-Based Youth Suicide Prevention Guide: http://theguide.fmhi.usf.edu/

American Association of Suicidology: http://www.suicidology.org/web/guest/home

Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools: http://www.gsaforsafeschools.org/

Means Matter: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter (Hisgen, 2011, p. 11).

Warning Signs of Suicide among Young People

According to Hisgen (2011), some of the most serious warning signs of someone considering committing suicide include the following:

Someone threatening to hurt or kill themselves;

Someone looking for ways to kill themselves: seeking access to pills, weapons, or other means; or,

Someone talking or writing about death, dying, or suicide (p. 21).

In addition, other warning signs of suicide among young people include:

Change in personality;

Isolation from friends or family;

Reckless behavior;

Sudden mood changes;

Change in sleeping habits; and,

Uncontrolled anger (Suicide prevention program, 2014).

Other warning signs may not be as obvious, but many young people tend to express some type of intention to commit suicide before making the attempt (Hisgen, 2011).

Description of the procedures, requirements and protocols of Mountain View Middle School

Mountain View Middle School is located in Riverside County, Beaumont, California. The main goals of this suicide prevention program are to:

Bring awareness surrounding issues of teen suicide;

Allow students to act as a resource for their peers in seeking mental health services;

Provide students with an opportunity to change the outlook on their campus; and,

Reduce the number of suicides and attempts (Suicide prevention program, 2014, para. 3).

In partnership with Riverside County Department of Public Health and Injury Prevention Services, the Mountain View Middle School suicide prevention program seeks to increase awareness among students concerning the issues surrounding suicide (Suicide prevention program, 2014). The city of Beaumont was one of 12 in Riverside County, California that were targeted for suicide prevention and early intervention (Suicide prevention program, 2014).

Mountain View Middle School also uses members from the Alternative Student Breaks (ASB) and Club Live to participate in three suicide prevention campaigns during each year (Suicide prevention program, 2014). According to the program directors, Santos and Bores (2014), "These students developed their own campaigns with the support of our program advisors" (Suicide prevention program, 2014, para. 3).

The high-profile suicide prevention program in place at Mountain View Middle School has featured the initiatives set forth in Table 1 below:

Table 1

Recent suicide prevention initiatives at Mountain View Middle School

Initiative

Description

Suicide Prevention Awards Luncheon

On May 12, 2012, members attended the Suicide Prevention Awards Luncheon, hosted by Riverside County. Students were honored for their excellent work with their campaigns and were able to meet with other district programs

There is "HOPE" bracelets

On February 10, 2012, the Suicide Prevention Team passed out yellow "There is HOPE!" bracelets as their second campaign for the year. The purpose of the bracelets is to remind students to be a caring friend for those that might be struggling with daily obstacles and to remember to stay positive. THERE IS HOPE!

Pledge to be a friend in need

On December 14-15, 2011, members of the Suicide Prevention Team took part in their first campaign. Students signed yellow hand cutouts to pledge to be a helping hand for friends in need. Due to an overwhelming response and more than 250 hands signed, members of the Suicide Prevention Team made the decision to allow students to sign the pledge poster by tracing their hands on it. The poster now proudly hangs in Mountain View's Multipurpose Room.

Conclusion

The research showed that suicide is among the leading causes of death for young people in the United States and about 5,000 commit suicide each year. This rate is all the more alarming because suicide is preventable and many young people show some type of warning sign for suicide prior to attempting the act. The warning signs for suicide by young people were shown to include threatening to hurt or kill themselves; looking for ways to kill themselves; seeking access to pills, weapons,….....

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