Departments: Health
Saving Kids From Suicide

The suicide rate for kids ages 10 to 14 has doubled over the last 10 years, making suicide the fourth leading cause of death for that age group. For young people 14 to 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death. Angela Oddone, the mental wellness program coordinator for the NEA Health Information Network, offers important information on suicide prevention.

What do we know about the risk of suicide among school-age youth?
Research indicates that girls are more likely than boys to have suicidal thoughts, create a suicide plan, and attempt suicide. But boys more often succeed at committing the act.

A 1997 study of 16,000 high school students found that:

• 20.5 percent had seriously thought about attempting suicide
• 15.7 percent had made a specific plan
• 7.7 percent had made one or more actual suicide attempts
• 2.6 percent had made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury needing medical attention.

Can schools make a difference?
Yes. A child’s problems—particularly with academic achievement—are often more evident at school than they are at home.

And researchers have found a link between suicide and school performance. In a 1988 study of 229 youth who committed suicide, 76 percent experienced a significant decline in academic performance in the year before their deaths.

What do educators need to know?
When suicide is a concern:

• You are not held to confidentiality. “Educators need to know,” says Rosemary Rubin, a school counselor and consultant for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Suicide Prevention Unit, “that there is no confidentiality when a child is talking about suicide.”
• Act immediately. If a child discloses thoughts about suicide—either directly to you or through a friend or writing assignment—report it right away. Don’t wait until the end of the school day.
• Take any indication of suicide seriously. Some statements may be ambiguous—“The world would be better off without me.” Take action, even if you’re not sure.

What action?
If at all possible, do not take suicide prevention alone. If your school has a crisis team, use the team’s resources. Work with the school counselor, social worker, or school administrator.

If it’s decided that a student is a suicide risk, school personnel should immediately contact the student’s parents or guardian. Schools need to have established crisis plans that can guide school personnel on steps to take, including specific roles and concrete procedures.

School personnel can also help connect a student with mental health resources. At LA’s Suicide Prevention Unit, a list of community mental health agencies is updated each year to facilitate referrals for students needing professional help.

What features should a school suicide prevention curriculum include?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that “not all curriculums are necessarily well conceived.”

CDC notes that it’s important to use a suicide prevention curriculum that doesn’t sensationalize suicide. And a program shouldn’t normalize suicide either, since that could lessen a protective taboo that our society has in place.

Adds Jon Sandoval, author of Youth Suicide: “It’s important not to romanticize suicide. Make clear, particularly with adolescents, that any fantasies they might have about somehow being able to witness the effect of suicide on others are unrealistic.”

General education programs that teach the facts, warning signs, and risk factors associated with suicide do impart knowledge.

But these programs, research suggests, have had little impact on changing student attitudes about suicide and the importance of seeking help.

The National Institute of Mental Health says that treating suicide prevention within a broader mental health focus—including work on enhancing coping skills and dealing with risk factor issues like substance abuse—is more likely to be successful than addressing suicide as a singular topic.

Health Resources

The American Psychological Association and MTV Music Television have joined forces to create Warning Signs, a violence prevention program that helps kids identify suicide warning signs. Among these signs:

• significant alcohol or drug use
• thoughts about dying/afterlife
• sudden increase in moodiness
• withdrawal or isolation
• major changes in eating or sleeping habits
• feelings of hopelessness, guilt, or worthlessness
• poor control over behavior
• impulsive, aggressive behavior
• drop in quality of school performance or interest in school
• lack of interest in usual activities
• getting into trouble with authority figures
• perfectionism
• giving away important possessions
• hinting at not being around in the future.

Call 800/268-0078 or go to http://helping.apa.org for free copies of the Warning Signs guide booklet.

From the NEA Health Information Network

• Suicide Prevention
  For a more detailed discussion of teen suicide and suicide prevention, visit the NEA Health Information Network Web site.

  Other resources to consider:

  • Center for Mental Health in Schools, Department of Psychology–UCLA, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, 310-825-3634, Fax 310/206-8716.
  • KEN: Knowledge Exchange Network. Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, P.O. Box 42490, Washington, DC 20015, 800/789-2647, TDD 301/443-9006.
  
  

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