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Suicide Among Youth And Among The Elderly Term Paper

Suicide Among Youth and Elderly Type of Diagnosis

Epidemiological Diagnosis

Behavioral Diagnosis

Educational Diagnosis

Contrary to overall trends, the suicide rate for youths 15 to 19 years old has increased over the last few decades. Suicide was still the third leading cause of death for young people 10 to 19 years old in 1998. (MoScicki, 1994)

Suicide is extremely rare in young children, and lower among 10-to-14-year-olds than older teens.

In 1998, white males accounted for 61% of all suicides among youth 10-19. White males and white females together accounted for over 84% of all youth suicides. However, the suicide rate among Native American male youth is exceedingly high in comparison with the overall rate for males 10 to 19 (19.3 per 100,000 vs. 8.5 per 100,000). African-American males ages 10 to 19 - more than doubling from 2.9 per 100,000 to 6.1 per 100,000 from 1981 to 1998. In 1999, found that Hispanic students, both male and female, were significantly more likely than white students to have reported a suicide attempt (12.8% vs. 6.7%). (Joe & Marcus, 2003) It has been widely reported in the media that gay and lesbian youth are at higher risk to complete suicide than other youth. A significant percent of all attempted or completed youth suicides are related to issues of sexual...

However, there are no national statistics for suicide completion rates among gay, lesbian or bisexual. (NIMH, 2003)
If a youth has attempted suicide in the past, he or she is much more likely than other youths to attempt suicide again in the future. If a male teen has attempted suicide in the past, he is more than thirty times more likely to complete suicide, while a female with a past attempt has about three times the risk. (Shaffer et al., 1996) high proportion of suicides and attempters have had a close family member attempted or completed suicide. Stressful life events often precede a suicide and/or suicide attempt. Such stressful life events include getting into trouble at school or with a law enforcement agency; fighting or breaking up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend; and fighting with friends. They are rarely a sufficient cause of suicide, but they often act as precipitating factors in young people. (de Wilde, Kienhorst, Diekstra, & Wolters, 1992)

Since firearms are the most common method of suicide by youth. The most common location for the occurrence of firearm suicides by youth is in their homes, and there is a positive association between the accessibility and availability of firearms in the home and the risk for youth suicide. (Kellerman, Rivara, & Rushford, 1992) Whether that of a peer or in the media…

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Youth suicide protective factors can include an individual's genetic makeup, behavior and the environment. Other voluntary protective factors are learned skills in problem solving, impulse control, conflict resolution, and nonviolent handling of disputes. Family and community support is very important; as is access to effective and appropriate mental health care A scientific approach to preventing suicide involves describing and monitoring the problem, understanding risk factors and causes of suicidal behavior and protective factors, developing and implementing interventions and prevention strategies in the context of evaluation research, and disseminating information about effective strategies. The research is focused on promoting overall mental health among school-aged children by reducing early risk factors for depression, substance abuse and aggressive behaviors and building resiliency. Another approach is to detect youth most likely to be suicidal by confidentially screening for depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. Efforts should be made to develop and implement strategies to reduce the stigma associated with accessing mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention treatments. Additionally, efforts to limit young people's access to lethal agents -- including firearms and medications -- may hold great suicide prevention value. Persons deemed at risk for suicide should then be referred for additional mental health services. (NIMH, 2003)

People involved with children and youth like parents and school personnel should be aware of the warning signs such as loss of energy or "making negative comments about oneself, behaviors.

Suicide disproportionately impacts the elderly. In 1998, the elderly represented 13% of the population, but suffered 19% of all suicide deaths. Firearms (71%), overdose [liquids, pills or gas] (11%) and suffocation (11%) were the three most common methods of suicide used by persons aged 65+ years. It is estimated that 20% of elderly (over 65 years) persons who commit suicide visited a physician within 24 hours of their act, 41% visited within a
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