Preventing Teenage Suicide In The United States

The rate of suicide, the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally, increases each year. “More adolescents die each year from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined” (Preventing Teen Suicide, 2016, p.2). These facts show suicide is a serious problem among teens. Last year, teen suicide became the second leading cause of death in the United States confirming the significant increase in teen suicides.

Suicide. The word catches everyone’s attention; it is the actions leading up to the suicide that goes unnoticed. Unfortunately, the suicide rates continue to increase, and the why remains unknown. In the United States, 44,193 American's died by suicide in 2015 with the state of Kentucky ranking 19th for the highest suicide rates (American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, 2015). In the state of Kentucky, there is a suicide every 12 hours (American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, 2015). Additionally, suicide is the second leading cause of death among the youth population in the state of Kentucky (Kentucky Center for School Safety, 2016). Suicide has the potential to impact everyone without discrimination. Therefore,

Suicide has historically been and continues to be a significant issue in the United States, for civilians as well as active duty military service members and veterans. While statistics surrounding suicide appear to be just numbers on a page, I personally implore the reader of the following paper to never lose sight of the fact that those numbers represent real people. Each one of those people, be they civilian or military, represent a loss of a father or a mother, a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a best friend, a comrade, …a person whose life, and that life’s potential, is now forever lost. The following statistics on suicide rates in the United States do not differentiate if the individual was a civilian, an active duty

Every suicide effects more than the individual’s life, in truth it impacts families, communities and economic well-being of our nation. According, Piscopo, Lipari, Cooney, and Glasheen, (2016) “Suicide is an important public health problem in the United States and a tragedy for all involved—families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and communities. In 2014, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States overall.1 Among people aged 10 to 34, suicide was the second highest cause of death, and for those aged 35 to 54, it was the fourth highest cause of death” (p. 2).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approximately every 13.7 seconds someone in the United States completes suicide. (Erin M. Sullivan & Thomas R. Simon, 2013) In 2007 this preventable public health problem was the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for over 34,000 deaths. (National Institute of Mental Health, 2013) (Elizabeth M. Varcarolis, 2010) This astonishing number of deaths is accumulative of various acts of suicide.

Teen suicide is one of the largest problems facing America at the moment, and it will only become worse if the country does not come up with a solution. “According to the American Psychiatric Association, suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between eleven and eighteen years of age (Teen Suicide).” American families can not keep losing sons and daughters to this entirely preventable epidemic. The largest issue with teen suicide is that Americans are using largely outdated and/or ineffective strategies in dealing with teen suicide, and Americans need to realize that this problem will not just go away. Using the old methods, such as telling teens to toughen up, are clearly not working and in some cases are contributing to the problem. Teen suicide is alarmingly on the rise and “According to the CDC, 5,504 people ages 10 to 24 died by suicide in 2014, the most recent year in which statistics are available. The figure was up from the grim 2013 tally of 5,264, and the number has risen every year and up 13 percent from 2010 (Corbin).” There are several causes for teen suicide that range from depression to concussions, and for each cause there are several proposed solutions to suicide or its causes, but many of the solutions will cause more problems instead of solving current ones, Americans need to utilize effective suicide prevention strategies and ignore the useless and outdated ones.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15-24 years old. This calculates to 33,000 adolescents killing themselves each year (CDC, 2010). The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), reported that suicide amongst all individuals nation wide has declined over all, but despite the decline, adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 have shown suicide rates that has increased by 6 percent (NCSL, 2005). The most staggering number, however, comes from the population of children between the ages of 10 and 14. For these individuals, suicide rates have increased by more than 100 percent (NCSL, 2005). In this paper, I seek to address the

Suicide is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the act or an instance of taking one 's

The risk of suicide upsurges dramatically when kids and teens have access to weapons at home, and nearly 60% of all suicides in the United States are committed with a gun. That's why any gun in your home should be unloaded, locked, and kept out of the reach of children and teens.

Each year in the United States, thousands of adolescents contemplate suicide or perform non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Research has shown that adolescents who either attempted suicide or inflicted self-injury showed warning signs. These adolescents experience extreme feelings of stress, self-doubt, confusion, peer pressure, and other fears while growing up. Suicidal feelings and depression are treatable mental disorders, however, often times, warning signs are ignored. According to Margaret Andover and Blair W. Morris et al, in the United States, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, and the 7th leading cause of death for children aged 5 to 9 years. Suicide with or without the intent to die is the behavior of an individual seeking to calm or end their pain and suffering.

Suicide is one of the largest social problems today affecting many lives in one way or another. It is a serious issue with multiple contributors that have been elusive in many cases as we try to understand why many younger people are choosing to end their lives instead of receive the help they need. Suicide is a serious issue that can have lasting results on individuals, families and communities. Although suicide rates decreased from 1990-2000, suicide is on the rise again and now the “10th leading cause of death in the US for all ages” (SAVE | Suicide Facts. n.d.). The causes of suicide are complex and unique to each, therefore, with effective prevention approaches, patient rights, and options as well as resources available to those experiencing suicidal ideations, we can promote awareness of suicide and encourage social change.

The Youth suicide prevention program put out statistics saying, 2001 in the US, 4,250 young people between the ages of ten and twenty four died by suicide, which is an average of one suicide roughly every two hours. They go on to say that one out of ten students indicated that they had made a suicide attempt in the past twelve months. One out of five indicated that they had seriously thought about it. Teen suicide is a bigger problem than people realize with rates of suicide tripling since 1970. It is an ongoing problem that seems to keep growing. Young people all across America choose to end their own lives, but could it be preventable? Brian Ahmedani studied suicide attempts across the United States stated that, sixty four percent of people

Suicide is a very difficult topic to discuss, especially for those that have either attempted to end their life or for the families of those that ended their life. However, it is a topic that continues to cause headlines and tragedy as suicide attempts have been more and more common but studies have shown a decline in teen suicide (Kolves, & De Leon, 2015). According to Quinan Davidson et al (2013) an average of 220, 000 people between the ages of 10 and 24 commit suicide. Suicide is considered to be a death by a self-injurious behavior in which the intent is to die (CDC.gov, 2015).

Suicide is one of the top five causes of death for people under the age of 45 in the United States, and exceeds the rate of death caused my motor vehicle accidents. (HHS, 2012) The largest number of suicides occur among those in middle age. For every American that completes suicide, more than 30 more attempt suicide, and still more live in pain that causes them to consider suicide. More than 8 million people reported to have seriously considered suicide in 2012, with 2.5 million making a plan to do so. Still more family members, coworkers, classmates, and community members are affected by those considering or completing suicide (HHS, 2012).

Suicide refers to the death that is caused by personal-directed injurious conduct with the intention of taking someone’s life. At any age, suicide is a tragedy to a person, families, friends, and societies which they live in. Indeed, suicides are a health problem when it comes to accounting for more than 34,000 deaths every year in the US and about one million or more worldwide (Feldman, 2016). Large numbers of suicide occur among the youth and elderly in the society. However, suicide cases among the children attract media attention compared to older adults. This paper discusses suicide as a social problem in the United States.