Prevention of Suicide in Adolescents Essay

Suicide has been rising at alarming rates; the overall suicide rate for children and adolescents has increased over 300% since the 1950s. (Miller, 2009) Adolescent children are screaming out for our help, are we just ignoring the signs or do we not care? For young people, an average 1,800 take their own lives and 85,000 are hospitalized for attempts nationally (CDC, 2008). With this kind of statistics we need to step in and take some action.

Surgeon General and of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action, 2012 recognizes that prevention should be combined in all fragments of our lives, family members, health care providers, educators, communities and government should be working together in preventing suicide. Goals and objectives are directed to “create supportive environments that promote healthy and empowered individuals, families, and communities; enhance clinical and community preventive services; promote the availability of timely treatment and support services, and improve suicide prevention surveillance collection, research, and evaluation” (National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action,

Healthy People 2020 is a government site that identifies health concerns based on statistics observed and collected over a ten-year period. Mental Health and Mental Disorders is one of the many health concerns or topics listed on their website and has been further subcategorized into objectives and goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015). The first objective listed under this topic states “reduce the suicide rate” (HHS, 2015). The goal of this objective is to “reduce the suicide rate by ten percent” (HHS, 2015). Suicide is prevalent among varying age groups, ethnicities, and genders (HHS, 2012). It is an increasing problem prompting Healthy People 2020 to label it as a Leading Health Indicator or an extremely important issue (HHS, 2015). To meet their goal, Healthy People 2020 partnered with the U. S. Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP) to create a plan that can be utilized throughout the nation. Their plan focuses on removing the stigma associated with mental health and mental health disorders while simultaneously building supportive communities with increased access to care, creating a standardized model promoting the collaboration of health care professionals in order to increase identification and data collection of high-risk patients and provide continuity of care, and ensuring the education and the adequacy of patient support systems.

The next educational effort would be the students at all schools with the focus on “health risks and nutrition and knowing what suicide looks like” in your friends or family. During education, the health maintenance and grief resource center would be initiated with location information given to all clinics, dentists, mental health counselors, schools, local hospitals, and churches. This approach to community assessment allows the PHN the understanding of historical trauma, sociocultural, and economic contexts and meaning to create partnerships with individuals, families, groups and communities promoting improved overall health and mental health (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). The focus of this program would center around Lake County Montana with adolescent and younger children at the forefront. Outreach, follow-up, and counseling is an impediment to improvement and stabilization for the mental health individual, which could be a risk factor for suicide and other health-related concerns. To assist with this goal, a grant will be required to cover financial needs. For example, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Research Grants awards monies from 30,000 to 1.5 million for suicide prevention, in 2015 they awarded 17 grantees for studies and programs to prevent suicide (afsp.org). These dollars will assist

Due to the variety of different programs that were implemented by grantees, there were many different evaluation techniques. Therefore, not all suicide prevention program evaluations were comparable (Goldston et al., 2010). However, these evaluations were helpful in informing changes in programming based on locality. Cross-site evaluations were also conducted under the GLSMA. According to Goldston et al (2010), these evaluations were more thorough, consisting of four main stages. First, evaluators aimed to get a better understanding of the environment in which the suicide prevention programs were being implemented. Next, evaluators examined the development, utilization, and budget allocation of programs and services. Evaluators then looked at key activities related to the implementation of each suicide prevention plan that was developed by grantees in order to receive federal funding. Finally, evaluators examined the impact that the programs had on participants that were considered to be at a higher risk of suicide. These evaluations were primarily used for federal performance measurement and program management. As evidenced by the many methods of evaluation utilized under the GLSMA, it is clear that the effectiveness and feasibility of these services are of high

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).

Maine needs a better proactive prevention program for suicide. Maine’s suicide rate among all ages is unreasonably high. It is especially disconcerting to have a high rate among young adults. According to the Maine Suicide Prevention Program, one suicide happens every two days or 180 suicides year in Maine. It is the tenth leading cause of death among all age bracket in Maine. It is the second leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24; and the fourth leading cause in ages 10 to 14. (“Maine Suicide Prevention Program”) There are programs in place to help. They do not seem to be enough.

Lives are slowly being lost due to suicide and not only is it affecting themselves but also the people who are around them. Suicide is defined as taking of one’s own life and it is an issue that should be given all attention to. Teen suicide has been talked about in every source of media and it still continues to have a harmful effect in todays generation. In the United States the eighth leading cause of death is suicide, within developing teens, suicide is the third leading cause of their deaths (NAMI). There are many signs of someone who is contemplating suicide. And there are many reason for someone to be driven to the point of suicide. Those reasons being if the teenager is dealing with depression, bullying, sexual abuse and abuse

Joseph Connelly Gazzola used to be a Northeastern University football star. He has since taken his own life, and it has hit everyone he knew very hard.

Teen suicide is increasing in America in teens age’s 14-17,young males,minorities;through the availability of guns,alcohol,drugs,and lack of support.

The organization was tasked with establishing goals and objectives to prevent suicide across the nation (“Goals and Objectives” 1). Though the initiatives the National Strategy of Suicide Prevention set in place may be effective, suicide rates continue to climb amongst

Goldsmith, S.K., Pellmar, T.C., Kleinman, A.M., Bunney, W.E. (2002). Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative. (pp 331-374). National Academies Press.

Youth Suicide Introduction Suicide is a tragic event. It has a profound personal effect on all associated with the person who died. Families, friends and society as a whole are affected. There is a particular poignancy when the suicide is that of a young person at the threshold of life. Australia has the fifth highest suicide rate per 100 000 persons in the world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–29-year-old. In the United States, about 22 cases per day. And for every suicide there are many more people who attempt it every year. This shows that suicide is a serious problem affecting our nation. Regarding this matter, Cooper, E. Stewart, Newman, Jody L., & Fuqua, Dale R. (2012) state that historically over the years, consultation has been working on solving problems through remediation and developing prevention, planning strategies for education, training and intervention aimed at solving social problems. Social functions of prevention and intervention have been serving

Teen suicide is a big problem all around the world, and we try to prevent it by offering help, and medications for whatever these teens are going through. What you may or may not know is that although we do offer help, these teens who are suicidal face negative criticism which sometimes pushes them to do something drastic.