The Importance Of School Suicide Prevention

Despite all these positives of school suicide prevention programs, there are still those who believe that there are too many negative aspects to deem them appropriate or even doable in the school system. Now, of course there are the people who claim that those who threaten suicide, or even go as far as committing suicide, are just doing so to receive attention. This goes along with what Harry Beckwith discusses in his book Unthinking regarding one main thing that the majority of Americans want: to stand out from the crowd. Throughout this section in his book, Beckwith claims that people in the United States value secret menus and tattoos merely because they set us apart. (90-92). With that logic, it makes complete sense that a person would go as far as to threaten to take their own life to receive attention, right? Several other arguments exist such as “the risk of false positives or false negatives, the possible stigmatization of those found to be in need of services, the overall cost-effectiveness of such programs… and the risk that a school may not have the resources to deal effectively with every student found to be at-risk” (Abel and Erickson 287). The reason behind the argument involving the chance of error in the schoolwide screenings comes from the fear that a student who is depressed or suicidal will not appear as such in the test, or a student who is not depressed or suicidal, will. This could result in a family losing their child to suicide later on because they

In American society there are children and adolescents who commit suicide and it has become a major concern. According to the world health organization, suicide is the second or third cause of death among young people in many countries worldwide among those 10 to 14 years old and the second leading cause of death among 15 to 24 years old, stated from CDC/NCHS in 2011. Suicide must be prevented. There are three articles that show us the study of how school programs and connectedness can prevent suicide from occurring. Article one called “Connectedness and Suicide prevention in Adolescents: Pathways and Implication” by the Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior from the American Association of Suicidology. Article two “Preventing Child Suicide: The Elementary School Death Education Puppet Show” by G.R. Bernhardt and Susan G. Praeger. Article three “Suicide prevention in adolescents: a controlled study of the effectiveness of a school-based psycho-educational program” by Gwendolyn Portzky and Kees Heeringen.

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.

From experts on this issue, to the civilians in the public, it is expressed deeply that suicide should not be hidden from any person, including children. It is said that, ¨Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12,¨ (The Parent Resource Program). The thought of a lovely girl named AnnMarie Blaha may come into mind, who took her life in 2013, and was a fifth grader at Meadow Ridge. Nothing can compare to the tragedy of why AnnMarie decided to commit suicide, and the sadness that overwhelmed the school districts was unbearable. From learning about AnnMarie’s story, it can show that like most parents of children who commit suicide, AnnMarie’s parents who had no idea of their daughter’s unknown situation. I confronted my parents, asking them certain questions dealing with this difficult topic. The first question I asked was, “Do you know where to go if you believe your child is thinking of suicide?” Unfortunately, neither one of my parents were able to answer question, because like parents of suicidal children, the thought has never crossed their minds. Since AnnMarie’s death, the importance of educating children and teens of suicide has grown tremendously, and a Prevention Law called, ¨AnnMaries Law,¨ was signed by Governor Bruce Rauner to require ¨the Illinois State Board Education and local school boards to create policies ensuring that students receive age-appropriate lessons youth suicide and prevention¨ (Chicago Tribune). Multiple websites describe the traumatizing death of AnnMarie, but one in particular called, ¨AnnMarie’s Foundation, A Life to Remember,¨ provides resources, hotlines, facts, and notifies the community of warning signals that may be given off by any person. The raise in education is highly needed in all communities. In

Many people think that a lot has been done to prevent youth suicide. 2,415 teenagers have been committing suicide per year in the last 5 years (Hunter Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Most of them have done that due to psychological issues. Furthermore, bullying is also one of the causes that we should be focused on. In addition, technological developments make it easier for teenager to get bullied through the Internet and social media. I think people should be concerned about youth suicide rather than physical health only because it could be a silent killer to this generation. I don’t think that people have done enough to prevent youth suicide.

Schools are a cost-effective way to reach youth, yet there is no conclusive evidence regarding the most effective prevention strategy. We conducted a systematic review of the empirical literature on school-based suicide prevention programs. Signs of Suicide and the Good Behavior Game were the only programs found to reduce suicide attempts. There are few evidence-based, school-based suicide prevention programs, a combination of which may be effective. It would be useful to evaluate the effectiveness of general mental health promotion programs on the outcome of suicide (Katz et al.,

I truly believe that if there were more advocates for middle schoolers, teen suicides would decrease, graduation rates would increase, and students would grow up to be more well rounded and accepting of others. The middle school years serve to segregate the overachievers from the underdogs. To not give kids a chance to reach their full potential is unethical, especially if they are suffering, whether they are struggling at home or at school, socially or emotionally. Everyone becomes so caught up in the bigger picture like school ratings and publicity that kids slip through the cracks. In this day and age, undiagnosed mental disorders are all too common but by spending five minutes with a student, it is fairly simple to tell if they need help and to begin pinpointing what the problem is. If administration simply took the time to talk to students and find out about their lives then I think that there is something that can be done to help. Maybe we need more guidance counselors. Maybe it's something else, but something must change. I personally nearly slipped through the cracks myself and I've seen it happen to other people, including close friends of mine and I will no longer sit here silently and watch more kids suffer.

In this article, the author provides a description of various institutional changes, ranging from policy changes to information dissemination, that is designed to prevent suicide on college campuses in the United States. The purpose of this article is not to offer an extensive review of campus-wide suicide prevention measures. Rather it is to outline recent information on campus suicides in the United States and to highlight reports from professional and mainstream sources, including monthly publications and websites, concerning institutional changes arising from and designed to decrease campus

Combining evidence based practices, national research and policy revision, this report identifies the role of school personnel in suicide response by providing model policies, tools, and comprehensive education on risk factors and warning signs.

In 2004 Congress enacted the Campus Suicide Prevention initiative which provides funds through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services, to college campuses nationwide (Smulson, 2016). The Campus Suicide Prevention initiative supports program activities, mental health screening services, and prevention strategies to form a foundation for mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and substance abuse prevention (Smulson, 2016). While research shows that mental and behavioral health supports can improve student life and functioning, the program falls short in some areas.

Suicidal thoughts can be produced by an endless amount of things. A couple common reasons are, sexual/verbal/physical abuse, loss of a loved one. a serious illness, or alcohol and drug abuse. For example a major reasoning people commit suicide is because of bullying. A student named Audrie Pott from Sarasota, California was sexually harassed by two guys at her school. The students had to go to different schools and give a presentation on slut shaming and cyberbullying. The boys’ purposes were to pass around the awareness of bullying, and also the awareness of suicide. These boys owed the family of Audrie Pott 950,00 dollars (Teicher- Khadaroo). Many teenagers who are suicidal will attempt to hide it from everyone else, so the importance of the mental health screenings in schools is huge. Students will not begin to talk about their suicidal thoughts to someone they do not trust. The screenings will help point out the signs of depression. The school will offer help to these students who need it. The issues of suicide has been around for many years, but noone can seem to figure out how to stop it. The idea of requiring mental health screenings to teens will surely decrease the rate of suicide and increase the rate of help for the suicidal

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

Teen suicide is a major problem in the United States today. It has effected most people in some sort of way throughout their lives. The facts have shown “Over the past decade, however, the rate has again increased to 12.1 per 100,000. Every day, approximately 105 Americans die by suicide”(Suicide Awareness). People need to start taking action so the rate of teen attempting or actually committing suicide goes down. There are many ways of improving this problem.

As people can tell, there are many different interventions methods for people considering suicide, but does not mean that each of those interventions are the best. Suicide intervention and prevention programs that are school based are difficult to determine the effectiveness because of the lack of evidence. Research has noted that there are some reasons as to why school based suicide intervention does work. Those reasons were provided in a table from an article by Balaguru, Sharma, and Waheed. Balaguru, Sharma, and Waheed ( 20102, p 134) discovered that school based programs can be effective because they involve parents in the process, addresses the risk factor of drinking alcohol and how it correlates with suicide, improves problem solving

Teen suicide is a major problem in our society today. The adolescent suicide rate has tripled since 1960, while being the largest cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24. This is the one single age group that has seen an increase in suicides over the past thirty years. There are about 10,000 reported suicides reported annually. It is estimated however, that the true number of teen suicides is actually three to four times that number when unreported deaths are factored in.