Suicide Prevention Training Project
Today, suicide is a major public health problem, accounting for more than 36,000 deaths in the United States each year (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). If fact, deaths from suicides cause as many fatalities as AIDS and homicide combined (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). Moreover, the overwhelming majority (90%) of people who commit suicide each year suffer from a diagnosable mental health condition, but fewer than 30% seek treatment for their problems (NYC guide to suicide prevention, services and resources, 2011). To determine how middle schools administrators can help prevent suicides by young people, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning suicide prevention in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
The statistics concerning youth suicides are truly alarming. Every year, 33% of the school districts in the United States lose one of their students due to suicide, and in some cases the act is carried out on school grounds (The Safe School helpline, 2014). Moreover, suicide rates for young people have tripled over the past 3 decades (The Safe School helpline, 2014). In fact, every day, approximately 14 individual aged 15 to 24 years commit suicide, meaning that nearly 5,000 young people commit suicide each year (The Safe School helpline, 2014). If these statistics are not chilling enough, research shows that for every young person that commits suicide, one hundred more will make the attempt (The Safe School helpline, 2014).
These statistics are all the more troubling since suicide is preventable (The Safe School helpline, 2014). According to one authority, "Most suicidal persons desperately want to live. They are just unable to find alternatives to their problems. Suicide is the third leading killer of 14- to 19-year-olds in the United States, yet only one in 10 schools has a plan to prevent it" (The Safe School helpline, 2014, para. 2). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the percentage of states that current require primary schools to teach about suicide prevention, though, increased from 26.0% in 2000 to 44.0% in 2006 (Suicide prevention, 2014). Nevertheless, the amount of training that students in American middle schools receive concerning suicide prevention is still dismally low. In this regard, the CDC also reports that, "Among courses in which suicide prevention was taught, the median number of hours of required instruction teachers provided on suicide prevention was 0.4 hours among middle school courses" (2014, p. 2). Developing, implementing and administering an effective suicide prevention program in middle schools can help prevent suicides by young people, but it is important to understand the challenges that are involved, and these issues are discussed further below.
Challenges Facing Middle School Administrators
One of the most significant challenges facing middle school administrators seeking to develop an informed and timely suicide prevention program is public awareness of the problem to reduce the stigma that is associated with the problem. For instance, O'Connor and Platt (2011) report that, "This becomes a particular challenge where an aim of a campaign includes efforts to reduce stigma associated with mental disorders along with suicide prevention awareness" (p. 579). Middle school administrators should also be aware of the warning signs of suicide (see below) and that although depression can lead to suicide, young people taking antidepressants are at greater risk of committing suicide (O'Connor & Platt, 2011). According to O'Connor and Platt, "This is of concern and highlights the challenge confronting the individual aced with the assessment and management of depression, particularly in young persons" (2011, p. 467). Likewise, young people who engage in substance abusing behaviors are also at greater risk of committing suicide (Hisgen, 2011). Finally, prior to implementing a suicide prevention program, it is vitally important to get parents involved in the process and to keep the informed of its importance. In this regard, Hisgen reports that, "This can be done in a variety of ways, including having your students develop brochures to give to their parents to increase awareness of the knowledge and skills your students are learning" (2011, p. 11).
Besides students and parents, it is also important to get the entire school staff and community-based resources on board with a suicide prevention program. For example, Hisgen adds that, "Because of the importance of this critical health issue, it is of great value to share this unit with school staff and community agencies that are connected to youth suicide prevention and intervention services" (2011, p. 11). In addition, it is also important to ensure that school staff members understand the information that will be shared with students. As Hisgen emphasizes, "It is critical that everyone working in a school understand the key pieces of knowledge and skills the students will be learning. Suicide prevention can be enhanced through common language, effective intervention strategies, and community commitment" (2011, p. 11).
There are numerous valuable resources available to middle school...
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