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Teen Suicide Prevention

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Teens Suicide, Risk Factors, and Intervention Measures
Nothing is more devastating for a family or community to lose a young person to teen suicide. Oftentimes, parents, classmates, siblings, and neighbors are left wondering whether they could have done anything to prevent the spiraling of suicide thoughts and ultimately the death itself.
Preventing tragedies such as these require a proper understanding of suicide ideation and the risk factors pushing the teen to a point of attempted suicide. That said, the reasons for attempted suicide in teens can be quite complex. In general, the rate of suicide attempts in children is much lower, but as they progress to become adolescents, the rate goes up sharply.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide ranks third among the leading causes of death in the United States for people aged between 15 and 24 years.
The risk of suicide has been shown to dramatically increase in instances where teens have access to firearms. Statistics reveal that 60% of all the suicides in the United States are gun related. Therefore, parents and guardians with guns in their homes should ensure they are unloaded and safely locked out of reach of teens.
Apart from access to firearms, overdose resulting from over-the-counter prescriptions and self-medication are among the leading methods through which teens attempt and complete suicides. In terms of gender, there is a stark difference between girls and boys. While the

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