News Archive: April, May, June 2018
June, 2018
Therapy Reduces Risk in Suicidal Youth: Clinical trial shows dialectical behavior therapy effectiveness
Preventing suicide has proven to be a difficult public health challenge. The suicide rate has climbed in recent years across age groups. In adolescents, suicide is the second leading cause of death. For every young person who dies by suicide, many more have suicidal thoughts, attempt suicide, or deliberately injure themselves without intending suicide.
To date, there have not been any research-validated treatments for preventing suicide among youth. And research has found that it’s hard to get adolescents with suicidal thoughts to start and stay with existing treatments.
Researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and collaborators at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA are addressing the treatment void for adolescents.
A recent clinical trial of a psychotherapy called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)—which has been shown to be effective in reducing suicide-related behavior in adults—showed that DBT can also reduce suicide attempts and suicidal behavior in adolescents.
National Institute of Mental Health, June 27, 2018
The fading American dream may be behind rise in US suicides
Shrinking life chances plus lack of a social safety net may have left middle-aged Americans more vulnerable to suicide than peers in other rich nations.
Sobering statistics published earlier this month show that the annual rate of suicide in the US has risen by almost 28 per cent between 1999 and 2016.
A number of explanations have been put forward, including the 2008 economic crash, the upsurge in addiction to opioid painkillers and the migration of manufacturing jobs to other countries. But none alone explains why the suicide rate is rising so fast in the US as it falls in other rich countries.
College students are forming mental-health clubs — and they’re making a difference
Mental-health problems among college students have been climbing since the 1990s, according to the American Psychological Association. And with services increasingly stretched at campus health centers, students have been taking action themselves through peer-run mental-health clubs and organizations. The approach appears to be paying off, a new study finds.
In what they describe as the largest study of its kind, researchers found that across 12 California colleges, such student-run efforts were associated with increased awareness of mental-health issues, reduced stigma and a rise in “helping behaviors.”
“Student-organized activities can improve college student mental-health attitudes and play an important role in improving the campus climate with respect to mental health,” said Bradley Stein, a senior physician policy researcher at the Rand Corp. and one of the paper’s lead authors.
The Washington Post, June 27, 2018
“Finding Hope: Battling America’s Suicide Crisis,” is a CNN Special Report hosted by Anderson Cooper. If you or someone you know needs help, call the national suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK.
Clicks Over Ethics: Careless Coverage of Suicide
The recent deaths of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain have forced the media into a necessary, albeit painful, discussion of suicide and mental illness.
According to a new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state over the past two decades. It is now the tenth leading cause of death, making it a critical US public health issue.
How the media portray suicide directly affects how our culture handles it, and the stakes for irresponsible reporting are high. As the CDC states, the phenomenon of copycat suicides, or suicide cluster or contagion, can result from simplistic, sensational and glamorized coverage.
One notorious example, cited by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, occurred in 1962, when the month following the death of Marilyn Monroe and the ensuing media circus saw a 12 percent rise in suicides. (“The blond, 36-year-old actress was nude, lying face down on her bed and clutching a telephone receiver in her hand when a psychiatrist broke into her room at 3:30 a.m.,” was how the LA Times—8/5/62—broke the news.)
Fairness and Accuracy in Media, June 22, 2018
Suicide Prevention Signs Posted at MBTA Stations
Commuters will soon be seeing signs posted at various Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority stations encouraging people to call for help if they may be contemplating suicide.
The signs come from the MBTA’s new partnership with Samaritans Inc., a suicide prevention organization based in Boston.
“If you or someone you know needs someone to listen, Samaritans is there,” the sign says. “Call or text 24/7 1-877-870-HOPE (4673).”
With the high-profile deaths of designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain, Steve Mongeau says Samaritan Inc. has seen a spike in calls. He says signage like this and just speaking to someone could help someone going through a tough time.
NBC News 10 Boston, June 21, 2018
Talking to Children about Suicide: Creating safe environment is key to opening a discussion
The recent high profile deaths by suicide make it inevitable that children will ask questions and express a curiosity about the topic. However, some parents might feel a sense of uneasiness about answering those questions. Local mental health educators say that the steady increase in death by suicide each year since 1999 makes those conversations vital.
Parents can begin by creating a safe environment for an age-appropriate dialogue, says Linda Gulyn, Ph.D, professor of psychology at Marymount University. “As always, reassure young children that you are there for them no matter what,” she said. “Don’t feed into the anxiety. Teens understand it 100 percent, probably more than you realize.”
What Educators Need to Know About Suicide: Contagion, Complicated Grief, and Supportive Conversations
When suicide is in the news, in popular culture, or directly affecting a student who is grieving a lost loved one, it can be difficult for teachers to know what to say or whether to talk about it at all. But open conversations and offers of help can be a crucial lifeline for students, suicide prevention experts say.
As suicide rates have continued a multi-year trend of gradually increasing, the prevention community has expanded its focus beyond mental health providers and counselors by seeking to embed resources and knowledge among other members of the community, including educators, said Doreen Marshall, vice president of programs at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“In schools, there’s been more emphasis over the past four to five years over training other gatekeepers, like teachers,” Marshall said. “What we’re starting to see is a shift to suicide prevention being more of a shared responsibility among the community, where there’s a sense that we look out for each other.”
Is Suicide Preventable? Rates of suicide have continued to rise in alarming ways.
A cherished young friend and colleague took his life almost two weeks ago, the same week the world lost Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. About 120 lives are lost to suicide in the United States every day, sometimes involving brilliant accomplished people like these who had abundant empathy for others but couldn’t find a way forward for themselves.
My dear friend’s family and friends and I tried our best to console ourselves that there was nothing more we could have done. I suspect most of us, like others who have lost loved ones to suicide, wondered silently if this was accurate. Surely there were countless things we could have done or done differently. We just don’t know which one of those things might have made a difference. The question lingers unanswered for me, a practicing psychiatrist, as it does for everyone else.
U.S. News and World Report, June 19, 2018
Phone apps are helping scientists track suicidal thoughts in real time: Studies aim to find out if such close monitoring could help prevent suicides
Suicide research is undergoing a timing shift, and not a moment too soon. A new breed of studies that track daily — and even hourly — changes in suicidal thinking is providing intriguing, although still preliminary, insights into how to identify those on the verge of trying to kill themselves.
Monitoring ways in which suicidal thoughts wax and wane over brief time periods, it turns out, can potentially strengthen suicide prevention strategies.
Digital technology has made these investigations possible. Smartphone applications alert people to report on suicidal thoughts as they arise in real-world settings.
Can We Really Prevent Suicide? Yes. 4 ways to reduce suicide and how you can help.
Following the recent high-profile deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, a common question we hear is – “Can suicide be prevented if someone really wants to die?” While the question seems simple, it’s actually quite complex. The first part is easy: Yes, we can reduce suicide if not totally prevent it. The second part is more complicated and requires determining if those who died from suicide really wanted to die.
Psychology Today, June 18, 2018
The Long, Dark History of America’s Suicide Crisis
The game feels rigged for too many Americans, as the gulf widens between a society’s sense of what success looks like and the paths to achieving those goals.
It took the deaths of two revered celebrities in a week to bring suicide to the center of the national conversation, but let’s hope the conversation doesn’t end there.
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a sharp increase in suicides—25 percent—between 1996 and 2016. They declared it a public health crisis. Suicide is one of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S., and one of the three causes that saw an increase over that decade. In 2016, the last year of the study, 45,000 people committed suicide in the U.S.; with firearms involved in roughly 50 percent of them. There has been an increase for women. Veterans are overrepresented. And there was an increase in western states, which might be related to that region’s painfully slow economic recovery.
The Daily Beast, June 15, 2018
Sex and Drugs Decline Among Teens, but Depression and Suicidal Thoughts Grow
One in seven high school students reported misusing prescription opioids, one of several disturbing results in a nationwide survey of teenagers that revealed a growing sense of fear and despair among youth in the United States.
The numbers of teenagers reporting “feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” suicidal thoughts, and days absent from school out of fear of violence or bullying have all risen since 2007. The increases were particularly pointed among lesbian, gay and bisexual high school students.
Nationally, 1 in 5 students reported being bullied at school; 1 in 10 female students and 1 in 28 male students reported having been physically forced to have sex.
“An adolescent’s world can be bleak,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey and analyzed the data. “But having a high proportion of students report they had persistent feelings of hopelessness and 17 percent considering suicide is deeply disturbing.”
The New York Times, June 14, 2018
Guidelines for reporting about suicide
Following the recent deaths of designer Kate Spade and chef, author and TV host Anthony Bourdain, journalists have faced the task of reporting on suicide, which is not only painful, but challenging, too. Journalists risk contagion, which is an increase in suicides connected to irresponsible media reporting. There is also the risk of overlooking statements and information that would further add stigma and feelings of shame for those surviving the loss and those more susceptible to self-harm.
Sparking a conversation about suicide and mental health can be positive, but it is sometimes hard to strike a balance between providing accurate information and preventing unnecessary damage.
International Journalists’ Network, June 14, 2018
Suicide is born of despair. Suicide prevention is far from hopeless. How to stop people killing themselves.
Suicide is often born of despair, but suicide prevention is far from hopeless. What is required is a better understanding of the suicidal brain, says Dan Reidenberg of SAVE, a non-profit organisation. Research suggests that people cannot remain acutely suicidal for much more than an hour, and that half of those who do commit suicide take the final decision less than ten minutes before killing themselves. Yet what goes on in the brain in those minutes remains a mystery. It is one that is worth trying to solve, since a new report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a sharp spike in suicide across the country.
Experts Warn About Suicide Contagion Possibly Triggered By High-Profile Celebrity Suicides
Experts want people to be attentive about suicide contagion in the wake of the deaths of well-known personalities of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade.
People who are already considering suicide may act on their thoughts definitively when they hear about other individuals taking their own lives, particularly if the suicide was committed by a popular personality.
Last week, celebrity chef Bourdain took his own life just three days after fashion designer Spade killed herself.
Mental health professionals are now encouraging families to reach out to members who might have suicidal tendencies.
‘They want help’: Crisis hotlines inundated with calls after celebrity suicides
After the suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, crisis hotlines added on-call counselors and reported increases in calls and texts.
At the Bozeman Help Center, a 24-hour hotline and referral center in Montana, Perrin Lundgren had just finished a busy overnight shift fielding calls from people in crisis when she heard the news.
It was 8 a.m. last Friday, just a few days after fashion designer Kate Spade’s suicide, which led to a 30 percent increase in calls to the hotline. Lundgren, a licensed counselor, was driving home when she learned of another suicide: celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
“I pulled over and sent a message back to the help center saying this is breaking news, they’re not sure it’s suicide-related,” she said, “so the person on shift if they hadn’t heard, did.”
The risk of ‘contagion’ after suicides is real
American fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead in her Manhattan apartment in an apparent suicide on Tuesday. Then on Friday morning, CNN’s Anthony Bourdain, the chef and storyteller who took viewers around the world in “Parts Unknown,” was found unresponsive in his hotel room in France. The cause of death was suicide.
Mental health experts agree that several high-profile celebrity suicides could possibly cause an increased risk of what’s called suicide contagion, and that all of us should be aware of the risk factors related to suicide.
Suicide contagion is a process in which the suicide of one person or multiple people can contribute to a rise in suicidal behaviors among others, especially those who already have suicidal thoughts or a known risk factor for suicide.
How Suicide Quietly Morphed Into a Public Health Crisis
The deaths of the designer Kate Spade and the chef Anthony Bourdain, both of whom committed suicide this week, were not simply pop culture tragedies. They were the latest markers of an intractable public health crisis that has been unfolding in slow motion for a generation.
Treatment for chronic depression and anxiety — often the precursors to suicide — has never been more available and more widespread. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week reported a steady, stubborn rise in the national suicide rate, up 25 percent since 1999.
The rates have been climbing each year across most age and ethnic groups. Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Nearly 45,000 Americans killed themselves in 2016, twice the number who died by homicide.
The New York Times, June 8, 2018
5 Takeaways on America’s Increasing Suicide Rate
In a week when two celebrities, first the designer Kate Spade and then the chef and television host Anthony Bourdain, took their own lives, new federal data was released showing that suicide rates have been increasing for years in almost every state and across demographic lines.
The escalating crisis has affected nearly every group and place, but the study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that some parts of the country have been hit especially hard. Here’s a closer look at the study and the stories behind some of the data.
The New York Times, June 9, 2018
Why Are Suicide Rates Rising?
The recent deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade have raised the question: Why is suicide becoming more common? And what can be done to reverse the trends?
While researchers have proposed everything from social isolation to bullying as the reason, it’s still a mystery why rates are rising. Experts do, however, recommend approaches that could help reduce the rates.
What’s behind the rise?
A report, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday (June 7), showed that rates of death by suicide in the United States have risen by roughly 25 percent in the last couple decades.
Though the reasons for that increase are not completely clear, in past research, experts have pointed to an increased sense of isolation among Americans, as well economic factors and a rise in mental illness.
Other pointed to the rise of technology, which has replaced important face-to-face interactions (though some argue technology actually decreases loneliness).
‘It’s Not a Choice:’ Trying to Understand Suicide
Mike Williams was a pastor who was boundlessly compassionate to those who knew him. He loved being outdoors. He was smart enough to teach himself computer programming. “He was an amazing man,” says his daughter, Anna Ruth Williams of Atlanta.
He also killed himself at the age of 55.
In coming to terms with his death, there’s one question Anna Ruth has come to loathe above all others: “Why do you think he did it?” She once walked out on a date who asked her that.
“It’s not a choice. When you live in an orbit of despair, it’s not a choice to you. You have no way out. It’s like your final days of cancer. You have no choice. It is eating your body. You are going to pass, right?
The only choice I think you do have to make is to reach out for help,” she says.
Best practices for covering suicide responsibly
Suicide made headlines several times this week. How can journalists, celebrities and anyone who might make a post on social media embrace some best practices that will minimize contagion? (Yes, contagion is real.)
I’ve been working with Dan Reidenberg, executive director of SAVE, for years to help journalists cover suicide.
Here are some best practices from Reporting on Suicide.
• Include information about warning signs of suicide.
• Include messaging that suicide is not a natural or logical outcome of adversity. Instead, include a message of hope: Recovery is possible. In fact, most people who think about suicide do recover.
• Avoid stating the means of death. Yes, we are all curious. Responsible news organizations who feel compelled to include some detail will report it low in the story, but avoid putting it in headlines, teasers, captions, or social text.
• Use neutral photos of the individual. And avoid photos that invoke melancholy. Images of a person who appears peaceful, calm and serene send a message that suicide will get you to that peaceful place.
Warning of pressure on London teenagers as suicide rate soars
Number has risen faster in capital than across rest of England and Wales, figures show.
The rate of teenage suicides in London is increasing faster than across the rest of England and Wales, leading to warnings of a “pressure cooker of conditions” facing young people in the capital.
There were 29 deaths by suicide among 10- to 19-year-olds in 2015-16, compared with 14 in 2013-14 – an increase of 107%. In England and Wales, the number of such deaths rose by 24% from 148 to 184.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to the Brent Centre for Young People in north London under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act show the overall number of suicides registered in London increased by 48% in the three-year period, compared with an overall 3% decrease in England and Wales.
Centers for Disease Control: Suicide rising across the US
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the US. Suicide rates increased in nearly every state from 1999 through 2016. Mental health conditions are often seen as the cause of suicide, but suicide is rarely caused by any single factor. In fact, many people who die by suicide are not known to have a diagnosed mental health condition at the time of death.
Other problems often contribute to suicide, such as those related to relationships, substance use, physical health, and job, money, legal, or housing stress. Making sure government, public health, healthcare, employers, education, the media and community organizations are working together is important for preventing suicide. Public health departments can bring together these partners to focus on comprehensive state and community efforts with the greatest likelihood of preventing suicide.
Centers for Disease Control, June 7, 2018
The way we discuss suicide can unintentionally cause harm, but it doesn’t have to
Many people are discussing and grieving fashion designer Kate Spade’s death, apparently by suicide. And in these moments, it becomes essential to discussing suicide as safely as possible.
Whether you knew the person who lost their life personally or as a public figure, whether you’re speaking in private, public, or as a member of the press, the way you discuss suicide can affect those around you. By following a few guidelines outlined by suicide prevention specialists and public health practitioners, you can minimize some risks.
What is suicide contagion?
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates among adolescents and young adults have increased sharply in recent decades. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among young people 10 to 24, and lesbian, gay, and bi-sexual youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide.
In a national survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 40% of transgender adults reported having made a suicide attempt in their lifetime and 92% of these individuals reported having attempted suicide before the age of 25.
Pediatric research: Education can help reduce youth suicide
If you come from a small town with a local newspaper, you can get pretty good at reading between the lines of the obituary section. When a youth dies by suicide, it doesn’t usually say so. But in communities large or small, the news spreads like spilled ink on a page. First a hush, then a whisper, and finally a clamor of words as the community tries to make sense of it all.
The conversation always comes back to this: Why do children die by suicide? What can physicians, parents and communities do to prevent it?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates among young people across the country are on the rise. Each year, one in five teenagers seriously considers suicide. It is the second-leading cause of death for children and young adults ages 10 to 34 in the United States. Suicide even affects children as young as 5.
The Columbus Dispatch, June 3, 2018
10-year-old Akron boy’s suicide prompts questions; family hopes his death will spur help for other troubled youths
When Razy Sellars’ family returned home from his brothers’ baseball game on a recent night, they found Legos and other toys strewn throughout their Akron home.
They saw a potted flower intended for 10-year-old Razy’s teacher sitting on the counter with all of the blooms cut off.
A 14-year-old brother searched for Razy, who had stayed home because he didn’t want to go to the game. What the teen discovered sent him running downstairs, screaming.
Razy was dead, hanging in his brother’s bedroom closet.
Razy’s suicide last week has left the family with many questions.
Why would a boy so young take his own life?
Deaths By Suicide and Firearms Are Rising Sharply Among Kids
After years of progress, deaths by suicide, homicide and other means of injury are way up among kids, according to new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The overall death rate for children between ages 10 and 19 fell by 33% between 1999 and 2013. But from 2013 to 2016, the report says, it crept back up by 12% — in large part because of a sizable increase in injury deaths, a category that includes deaths by suicide, homicide and unintentional injuries or accidents.
A total of 9,716 kids died by injury in 2016, a 17% increase over 2013, the report says.
Unintentional injuries, such as those caused by car accidents, accounted for the largest number of child deaths (4,999 in 2016), but saw the smallest increase: After a 49% decline from 1999 to 2013, these types of deaths rose by 13% from 2013 to 2016.
May, 2018
New study links low gun suicide rate with strict gun laws
New York has the third lowest gun suicide rate in the United States, which a gun violence-prevention advocacy group attributes to its tight gun laws.
A study by the Violence Policy Center found that states with relatively lax gun laws – like Montana and West Virginia – have some of the highest suicide rates in the country. Gun-violence experts said the findings show that overall suicide rates could drop if gun laws were tightened.
There are signs your teens may think about suicide. Here’s how you can get them help.
Sometimes Emily Halasey feels as if she’s in zero gravity with objects flying at her, but she can’t move.
“You just know if you move or if you dodge, there’s another rock that’s just going to hurl at you,” the 18-year-old from Collinsville said, describing her anxiety. Depression is like that, too, except those objects are pushing her down — at least that’s how it feels to Emily.
Belleville News-Democrat, May 31, 2018
Why Are Black Children Killing Themselves? As research continues to show a racial disparity in suicides among kids, experts are grappling with the reasons why.
AN HONOR-ROLL STUDENT and budding athlete, those who knew him described Rylan Hagan as a model sixth-grader and a happy kid with two loving, if occasionally troubled, parents fighting through poverty, past incarceration and homelessness.
Friends and family remembered Stormiyah Denson-Jackson as “a beacon of light,” a typical tween-age girl who loved dancing and was a bit of a shutterbug. Yet her captivating smile, they say, belied the pain she felt from bullying from other kids at her residential charter school.
Rylan, 11, and Stormiyah, 12, lived in different parts of Washington, D.C., and likely didn’t know each other. But their deaths unite them: Rylan committed suicide in November 2017, and Stormiyah reportedly did the same this past January.
Though shockingly young for such tragedy, the two also illustrate alarming statistical trends. More elementary-aged African-American children have been taking their own lives, and black boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 12 are doing so at roughly twice the rate of white kids the same age.
U.S. News and World Report, May 31, 2018
In wake of 11-year-old son’s suicide, Coppell family creates support group
Carson Dyke took his own life, at the tender young age of 11. He didn’t leave a note. He didn’t tell anyone why.
The parents of an 11-year-old boy marked a difficult and somber anniversary last month by promising to help the next family that might soon have to walk their same emotional and painful path.
Carson Dyke’s parents described to us a fun-loving kid who still played with Legos. A goofy, intelligent red-head, the youngest of three brothers.
“And he was so smart. Man, I knew he was going to be my Aggie,” his dad Jason Dyke said. “The two older ones I don’t think are going to A&M. But Carson was going to be my Aggie.”
But on April 28 of last year after a disagreement over chores at their house in Coppell, Carson, a straight-A student, an all-around good kid, seemed overly upset.
“And he came down, and he was just crying and it was really more than anything. It didn’t fit the situation,” his mom April Dyke said.
It didn’t fit at all. And later that night when Jason went to his son’s room to call him to dinner, he found the last horrible scene he could ever have imagined.
Mapping the rising tide of suicide deaths across the United States
Suicide rates are on the rise across the nation but nowhere more so than in rural counties, according to a new study by a team of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers.
The study maps, in unprecedented detail, county-level changes in suicide rates between 2005 and 2015. The animation above, generated from figures in the report, shows a persistent, nationwide increase in suicide rates at the county level during that period. Rates in rural Western counties start off high and rise even higher. A swath of the country running from Oklahoma through the Appalachians stands out, as well.
‘Breaking down the culture of silence’: WA parents who lost daughter to suicide speak out
The Oliver’s eldest daughter Jenni took her own life in February after a long battle with depression. She was 28 years old.
In an interview with WAtoday , the Olivers said losing their daughter had been a living nightmare. But they are determined to keep Jenni’s memory alive.
The couple have already raised more than $7000 in the lead-up to the run, with funds raised to go directly to the RUOK suicide prevention charity. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver recently published a short blog where they set out their views on how the mental health system and our attitudes towards it needed to change. They have given WAtoday permission to republish portions of that blog.
“If a child had a sprained ankle or a more threatening condition related to cancer, there would be a far greater level of support and opportunity to engage with specialists and obtain necessary support,” the Olivers said.
Western Australia Today, May 24, 2018
The suicide rate for black American children is twice that of white children
White Americans are more likely to commit suicide than black Americans. But a new study finds that the opposite is true for children.
Black children between the ages of 5 to 12 years old are roughly twice as likely to take their own life than their white counterparts, according to the paper, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. It adds to a 2016 study that found an increase in suicide rates in recent years among black children of elementary-school age.
Doctors create resources for parents ahead of new ’13 Reasons Why’ season
With the second season of the popular Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” now streaming, mental health professionals want parents to be prepared for how the show — which includes subject matter such as sexual assault, school violence, substance abuse, bullying and suicide — might affect their children.
“The first season of ’13 Reasons Why’ had a pretty significant impact on young people,” Brian P. Kurtz, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told TODAY Parents. “For those of us who see many young people in crisis — coming to the emergency department with suicidal ideation, for example — the fact that the show was on the mind of these patients and their families really jumped out at us. And this was across the country.”
NJ mother drives conversation around mental health in wake of son’s suicide
A local mother wants to make sure no other family feels the pain hers has had to endure. Her son committed suicide, but no one realized he was in trouble. So she’s on a mission to drive a much-needed conversation about depression.
Rachelle St. Phard describes her son Coby as “the kid everyone liked.”
“He went out of his way to make other people feel good,” Rachelle said. “Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize is that some of that outgoingness was him holding something inside.”
Nothing about Rachelle’s stable Mercer County community would ordinarily trigger suspicion of depression at play. And that’s exactly the point.
Kids’ Suicide-Related Hospital Visits Rise Sharply
From 2008 to 2015, the proportion of emergency room and hospital encounters for suicide-related diagnoses almost tripled. About five years ago, pediatricians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville found that more and more of their inpatient beds at the children’s hospital were occupied by children and adolescents with mental health issues, especially those who had come in because of suicide attempts, or suicidal thoughts. These patients were known as “boarders”: They were waiting for psychiatric placement because it wasn’t safe for them to go home.
The doctors wondered whether the problem was specific to their city, perhaps reflecting scarce local resources. But in a new study in the journal Pediatrics, they found that this same pattern held true around the country over the period from 2008 to 2015.
“What we find nationwide is that over the last decade, the numbers of kids being admitted or seeking help in the emergency department or hospital for suicidal ideation or attempts have dramatically increased,” said Dr. Gregory Plemmons, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
The New York Times, May 16, 2018
Traveling Art Exhibit Tackles the Stigma of Suicide
At the Lafayette Club in Minnetonka Beach on Thursday, May 10, John Bauer warmly greeted guests arriving for “Love in Darkness,” an evening event featuring dinner, a silent auction and guest speakers to raise funds and awareness for “What’s Left,” a traveling art exhibit created to spark discussion about suicide and mental illness.
The multimedia exhibit features more than 40 works from Minnesota artists and has been displayed at venues across the state, from Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minnetonka.
The exhibit was organized by Bauer, in partnership with MacRostie Art Center, and debuted in September 2015 in Bauer’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn. In 2016, “What’s Left” began touring, bringing a message of hope and the stories of those touched by suicide to towns large and small.
The project stems from Bauer’s personal experience with the devastation that suicide leaves in its wake: he lost his 34-year-old daughter Megan to suicide in 2013.
New season of ’13 Reasons Why’ still targeted by doctors who say it glamorizes teen suicide
Medical experts say Netflix and creators of the second season of 13 Reasons Why — streaming Friday — aren’t doing enough to curb the increase in teen suicides and may be encouraging copycat cases.
Data show the teen suicide rate rose by more than 70% between 2006 and 2016 with black teen suicides increasing far faster. The renewed criticism comes despite the series’ new embrace of suicide prevention, which includes a collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).
Some critics of the series, which showed a suicide and sexual assault in graphic detail, blame the first season for glamorizing suicide. The proportion of visits involving suicidal thoughts — known as “ideation” — jumped by more than 40% last April and May compared to the weeks before the release of the series’ first season on March 31, 2017, according to a study of millions of doctors’ visits by 14- to 20-year-olds.
Big spike in U.S. kids, teens attempting suicide
In a troubling sign that more young Americans are struggling with depression and anxiety, new research shows a significant rise in the number of school-age children and teens thinking of taking their own lives or actually attempting suicide.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that the number of kids and teens hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled in the U.S. from 2008 to 2015.
“There are increasing rates of anxiety and depression in youth and young adults. Some people have theorized that social media is playing a role,” study author Dr. Gregory Plemmons, an associate professor of pediatrics with the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University, told CBS News.
Kids’ Suicide-Related Hospital Visits Rise Sharply
From 2008 to 2015, the proportion of emergency room and hospital encounters for suicide-related diagnoses almost tripled.
About five years ago, pediatricians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville found that more and more of their inpatient beds at the children’s hospital were occupied by children and adolescents with mental health issues, especially those who had come in because of suicide attempts, or suicidal thoughts. These patients were known as “boarders”: They were waiting for psychiatric placement because it wasn’t safe for them to go home.
The doctors wondered whether the problem was specific to their city, perhaps reflecting scarce local resources. But in a new study in the journal Pediatrics, they found that this same pattern held true around the country over the period from 2008 to 2015.
“What we find nationwide is that over the last decade, the numbers of kids being admitted or seeking help in the emergency department or hospital for suicidal ideation or attempts have dramatically increased,” said Dr. Gregory Plemmons.
The New York Times, May 16, 2018
His College Knew of His Despair. His Parents Didn’t, Until It Was Too Late
In the days after her son Graham hanged himself in his dormitory room at Hamilton College, Gina Burton went about settling his affairs in a blur of efficiency, her grief tinged with a nagging sense that something did not add up.
She fielded requests and sympathy notes from the college, promising the dean of students a copy of his obituary “so you can see how special Hamilton was to him.” This was why his suicide “makes no sense,” she added in a puzzled aside. The next day, Ms. Burton accepted condolences from the college president, and assured him “how right a choice Hamilton was” for her son.
But two weeks later, she read her son’s journal and everything changed. Mr. Burton, a sophomore, wrote that he was flunking three of his four classes and called himself a “failure with no life prospects.” He had struggled to sleep, missed classes, turned in assignments late. The college had known of his difficulty, he wrote, but had been slow to offer help and understanding.
“Would you care to shed some light on this?” Ms. Burton asked in an angry email sent at 2:53 a.m. to the academic dean, with copies to the president and the dean of students. “If this is what drove Graham, I don’t think I’ll be able to cope.”
The New York Times, May 13, 2018
9 Phrases That Spread Mental Health Stigma & What You Can Say Instead
For many people with mental illness, mental health advocates, and professionals alike, an essential goal of mental health awareness is to challenge the stigmas that surround mental health conditions. Stigma can have a super detrimental impact on the health and quality of care for mentally ill people. In fact, a 2014 report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found that mental health stigma is a primary barrier when it comes to mentally ill people accessing appropriate healthcare and resources.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention TV Commercial, ‘Seize the Awkward’
New effort launched to spot early warning signs that your child may be thinking about suicide
These weren’t “weird” kids. They had friends, played sports and seemed fine. Until they killed themselves.
“I think that’s what parents think – my kid is safe because she’s a cheerleader, they are popular, they are active,” said Dianne Grossman of Rockaway, whose 12-year old daughter committed suicide after being bullied last year. “I want people to know their children think this (suicide) is an option.”
Grossman and Rachelle St. Phard of East Windsor, whose 18-year-old son took his life two years ago, say they live with regret and frustration for not seeing the signs their children were suffering.
On Wednesday, the two women – now public speakers to prevent teen suicides – endorsed a new strategy they hope will train a broader array of adults at school to spot a student in crisis.
Celebrity Suicides Trigger Copycat Deaths by Same Method
Not only does the suicide rate in the general population increase following a celebrity suicide, but victims copy the method, new research shows.
Investigators found that in the weeks following the death of actor and comedian Robin Williams on August 11, 2014, which was widely reported as a suicide by hanging, there was a surge in suicides by hanging.
Similarly, in the wake of the gunshot suicide of American football Hall of Famer Tiaina Baul Seau Jr (Junior Seau) on May 2, 2012, there was a jump in suicides by firearms.
“Our study showed not only that the rate of suicides increases following a celebrity suicide, but the method is copied as well,” Patrick Ying, MD, Department of Psychiatry, New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, New York City, told Medscape Medical News.
The findings were presented here at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2018 annual meeting.
Depression among teens, millennials on the rise, Blue Cross Blue Shield study finds
Diagnosed cases of depression have skyrocketed, especially among adolescents and millennials, according to a new study by one of the nation’s largest commercial insurers.
Nationally, depression diagnoses surged by 33 percent from 2013 to 2016, says a report on medical claims released Thursday by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a federation of 36 Blues that provide insurance for one in three Americans
During that period, depression among the network’s adolescents rose 63 percent; among millennials (ages 18 to 34), 47 percent.
Former Gov. Richard Codey unveils plan to combat teen suicide ‘epidemic’
Teen suicide is taking more children’s lives than cancer, Democratic Sen. and former Gov. Richard Codey said Wednesday as he unveiled a plan to combat the “growing epidemic” with a $1 million grant.
New Jersey must act to prevent teen suicides, which have reached crisis level, Codey said at a news conference at Liberty Middle School in West Orange on Wednesday morning.
The former governor was joined by two mothers whose children died by suicide.
Teenage Suicide: Behind the smile of Reece Johnson
We delve deeper into teen suicide by looking behind the smile of 17-year-old Reece Johnson.
Bryan and Susan Johnson hope sharing their son’s story will save the lives of others.
“I won’t stand here and apologize for the choice that he made that brought us so much pain, sadness. All I can say is..I don’t understand it,” said Bryan Johnson as he and his wife, Susan, stood before a packed church February 17th of 2018.
Hundreds were gathered to celebrate the life of their son, Reece Johnson. Reece attended Fairhope High School where he made good grades and had a personality that naturally drew people to him.
Many of Reece’s friends shared stories of his fashion sense, his infectious smile, and his ability to pull others out of dark places. Few realized the hurt he held inside.
“He was always going. He was always doing something. You know he was not a kid that sat still. He wasn’t sitting around saying…oh woe is me. There was none of that, zero,” said Reece’s dad reflecting on his son’s life nearly three months after Reece’s Celebration of Life service.
Seventh teen suicide prompts community involvement in Herriman
The Herriman community is dealing with a crisis. Seven students at Herriman High School have committed suicide since last summer.
Less than one week ago, 17-year-old Nicholas Swint took his life.
“Since the suicides, it’s felt a lot different,” said Ryan Cherry, a Junior and Herriman High School. “I feel we’ve grown together as a mustang family, and we’ve started to look out for each other.”
Ryan and Nicholas were friends. They played basketball together often. Ryan knew his friend was sad at times, but he didn’t realize the extent of his friend’s depression.
Ryan Cherry knows what it’s like to feel down. He says getting bullied at school made him depressed.
“It put me in a state of depression,” said Cherry. “I really struggled. My grades dropped… I felt alone. I felt like no one cared.”
To help lift his peers, Ryan started the Golden Gate Club, a group to help students make friends and feel accepted.”
Experts: Suicide needs same attention as addiction crisis
Katelyn Simpson knows firsthand the dangerous of suicidal thoughts.
In 2015, just two weeks before her 20th birthday, Simpson was at a low point in her life. She had battled with depression and anxiety for years and had been seeing a counselor since she was 9 years old, but the lack of a support system and the ending of a romantic relationship left her feeling like she was a burden.
“I just felt like I was just really not necessary in people’s lives at that time. I was like ‘Well, I just kind of don’t want to be here anymore.’ ”
She attempted suicide by trying to overdose on the depression medication she was taking at the time. But after taking the medication, she realized she made a mistake. She drove herself to Licking Memorial Hospital for immediate care and spent three days at Shepherd Hill.
A once suicidal teen wants others to know they are not alone
Two years ago, walking the halls of Maysville Middle School was unbearable for Rylee Butler.
She felt isolated, inferior and hopeless. More than anything, she felt like she was a burden and awaited the day when she would no longer be a bother to her friends and family.
Sunday, Rylee will walk with confidence during the first You are Not Alone; Suicide Prevention 5K at Maysville High School to bring awareness about mental health and suicide prevention – an event the 16-year-old has single-handedly coordinated.
‘Deaths of despair’: Report finds steep increase in suicide, drug and alcohol morbidity
The rate of “deaths of despair” has risen dramatically over the past decade in the United States, says an annual report released today.
Why that’s the case is a vexing question.
“Alcohol (abuse) is going up, suicide is going up, drug overdose is going up,” said Jon Roesler, epidemiological supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Health. “We’re changing as a society. Something is going on, which is bigger than I can wrap my head around.”
Nationally, the combined death rate from suicide, alcohol, opioids and other drugs — the so-called “deaths of despair” — increased by 50 percent from 2005 to 2016, according to the 2018 state health care scorecard released by The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that specializes in health policy.
Twin Cities Pioneer Press, May 2, 2018
How to Get Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mental Health Issues
Sometimes, the most challenging part of dealing with mental health issues is not figuring out that you need help, but figuring out exactly how to get help.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we’re using it as an opportunity to help guys not only open up about their overall mental wellness, but also to help them get the support they need, when they need it.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of resources for guys. Whether you’re struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, or if you just need someone to talk to, there is help available right now — and that’s the first step on the road to overall wellness.
April, 2018
Grieving Parents Include Suicide In Son’s Obit To Remove Stigma, Promote Dialogue
Parents Stephen and Carol Cohen had nothing but pride for their son Michael. The Pomona College graduate was an avid traveler who spent three years in China, visiting 27 other countries before returning to Boston in 2016. Back home, he worked as a translator, made new business connections and fell in love. But last December he fell into a short, sudden and severe depression, which ended with his decision to take his own life.
The Cohens decided to include Michael’s cause of death in the obituary they published in The Boston Globe — a decision they made in hopes of promoting dialogue and removing the stigma of mental illness. They tell Here & Now’s Robin Young they hope their openness might prevent further suicides.
Depression: A Killing Disease: the effects of depression on the body beyond suicide
In the first part of this interview, Dr. Charles Nemeroff, Director of the University of Miami Center on Aging and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of Miami, discusses depression, including its symptoms, epidemiology, and the link to other physical illnesses like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In particular, he discusses the role of depression in clot formation and inflammation. He then looks ahead to future studies and treatments that might target inflammatory factors, including stem cells, and argues for psychiatrists to consider obtaining inflammatory marker labs on every patient that they see.
Psychiatric Times, April 30, 2018
AI-Powered Systems Target Mental Health: Chatbots and algorithms may help doctors treat depression more effectively
Every day Nick Impson, a 25-year-old graduate student at Georgetown University, checks in with Woebot, a text-based chatbot.
Woebot asks Mr. Impson, who has been battling depression, what is happening in his life that day and how he is feeling. Woebot analyzes the language Mr. Impson uses and provides coping strategies drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy. The whole exchange takes about 10 minutes.
The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2018
Suicides reaching ‘epidemic’ levels in Wichita area
There’s an epidemic unfolding in the Wichita area, local officials say, but many people are reluctant to talk about it.
There were 96 suicides in Sedgwick County last year, the highest number since the Sedgwick County Suicide Prevention Coalition began tracking the numbers in 2001, said Nicole Klaus, a psychologist and associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita.
The numbers have climbed sharply in recent years, and experts say they don’t have an explanation.
“It’s the responsibility of the whole community to be addressing this epidemic of suicide,” Klaus said.
The Wichita Eagle, April 27, 2018
Utah Is Finally Addressing Its Epidemic of Youth Suicide
We are facing a dire situation in Utah. Since 2011, youth suicide rates have increased four times faster than the national average — a staggering 140 percent spike within our state.
While we tirelessly work to push our movement forward, there is no doubt that the culture war is taking a toll. When young people are bullied in school, exiled from their homes, and targeted for discrimination by government and church leaders, they are at risk. They become children without a tribe.
Suicide: A Silent Contributor to Opioid-Overdose Deaths
As the toll of opioid-overdose deaths in the United States rises, we face an urgent need for prevention. But preventing such deaths will require a better understanding of the diverse trajectories by which overdoses occur, including the distinction between intentional (suicide) and unintentional (accidental) deaths, be they in patients with chronic pain who overdose on their opioid analgesics or in those with a primary opioid use disorder (OUD).
Interventions to prevent overdose deaths in suicidal people will differ from interventions targeted at accidental overdoses. Yet most strategies for reducing opioid-overdose deaths do not include screening for suicide risk, nor do they address the need to tailor interventions for suicidal persons.
Moreover, the inaccuracy of available data on the proportion of suicides among opioid-overdose deaths — which are frequently classified as “undetermined” if there is no documented history of depression or a suicide note — hinders deployment of appropriate prevention services.
The New England Journal of Medicine, April 26, 2018
How one family is educating students, teachers on mental health
Will and Deb Binion speak passionately about their goal to give hope to families across the country. After losing their son Jordan in 2010, the Binions decided that they didn’t want another family to suffer the heartbreak they had.
At 17, Jordan, known as Jordie, committed suicide. He had struggled with what at the time his parents thought was depression since he was 15, but had never been given a thorough psychiatric evaluation.
Question, persuade and refer. How QPR can help prevent suicide
Kathleen Fuchs isn’t afraid to ask people if they’re contemplating suicide.
Fuchs is a retired counselor who spent decades helping students at Lawrence University, including more than a few struggling with suicidal thoughts.
“We’ve grown up with the thought that it’s intruding if we ask someone if they’re thinking of suicide,” she said.
Fuchs is part of a group of about a hundred volunteers who have taught thousands of people in Outagamie, Calumet and Winnebago counties a technique meant to help them prevent suicide.
The technique is called QPR, which stands for question, persuade and refer. The training focuses on asking questions of the individual thinking about suicide, persuading them to get help and referring them to mental health services.
The first step — asking about suicide — is often the most difficult, Fuchs said.
Saving Face, Losing Lives: The Political Importance of Cornell Suicides
Why is it that when we hear about hate crimes on campus, we can easily interpret such acts as political, systemically determined events — and are thus moved to anger — but when we hear of a student committing suicide in her own dorm room, all that we have to offer is our sympathy? Rather than reading her suicide as political, we deem it merely personal; a grieving process is initiated, and in a few weeks, the rest of the world moves on.
When talking about suicide, one is inevitably pushed towards discussing the personal rather than the political. The individual circumstances or symptoms unique to the person – and not the social or political conditions which produced them – are what tend to shape discussions following a suicide. For suicide theorist Suman Gupta, this is because more often than not, the act of suicide is deemed by mental health authorities (and subsequently, the media) as an “involuntary” decision:
Regarded as persons with a psychological dysfunction and subject to pathological disorder . . . suicidal individuals are divested of responsibility for themselves. Thus regarded, their motives and intentions can be disregarded, especially if they are inconvenient to establishment norms. They become involuntary symptoms of a malaise and therefore devoid of rational judgment . . . and suicide is thus removed from the possibility of political resonance.
The Cornell Daily Sun, April 19, 2018
‘It is really about listening’: Teen suicide-prevention expert counsels parents, teachers and students in Jordan School District
Parents showed up by the hundreds Monday to hear a national suicide-prevention expert speak at Jordan School District, a community alarmed by a spate of youth suicides this school year.
More than 200 parents, many with notebooks and pens in hand, attended the evening presentation in Riverton by Scott Poland, a psychology professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, on strategies for identifying and preventing youth suicide.
District staffers brought in Poland as part of their response to five students enrolled at Herriman High dying by suicide since summer. State officials also say they’re investigating several other youth suicide cases in that southwestern corner of Salt Lake County, though they noted it is too early to know whether the deaths are linked by anything other than location.
The Salt Lake Tribune, April 17, 2018
Touring exhibit drives home rate of suicide among college students
Send Silence Packing, a national traveling exhibition of donated backpacks representing the roughly 1,100 college students lost to suicide each year, is making stops this spring at central San Joaquin Valley community college campuses.
The program by Active Minds, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to changing the discussion about mental health, is designed to raise awareness about the incidence and impact of suicide, connect students to needed mental health resources, and inspire action for suicide prevention.
At each exhibit of Send Silence Packing, about 1,100 backpacks are displayed in a high-traffic area of campus — for instance, the quad or, in the case Monday at Fresno City College, the cafeteria — giving a visual representation of the scope of the problem and the number of victims.
The Fresno Bee, April 16, 2018
Six Ways Social Media Negatively Affects Your Mental Health
The rise of social media has meant that we as a global population are more connected than we have ever been in the history of time.
However, our reliance on social media can have a detrimental effect on our mental health, with the average Brit checking their phone as much 28 times a day.
While social media platforms can have their benefits, using them too frequently can make you feel increasingly unhappy and isolated in the long run.
The constant barrage of perfectly filtered photos that appear on Instagram are bound to knock many people’s self-esteem, while obsessively checking your Twitter feed just before bed could be contributing towards poor quality of sleep.
Suicide among teens and young adults tripled since 1940s: Local middle school counselor says level of anxiety has soared among students
At only 15 years old, one Fenton freshman has already lost two of her close friends to suicide.
Fenway Jones doesn’t know exactly why her friends, age 16 and 15, decided to take their own lives, but she wants to help prevent it from happening to other people.
“I am planning a Dungeons and Dragons charity event where all of the proceeds are going to a suicide prevention charity,” she said. “I lost two friends in the past year to suicide.”
She’s trying to do some good so other people don’t have to feel the grief of losing someone close to them to suicide. The event, called Jasper’s Game Day, named after one of Jones’ friends who died from suicide, will take place April 21 at Ziege Games in Howell. All the proceeds go to the Barb Smith Suicide Resource and Response Network. See sidebar for more information.
Suicide, which claims 4,600 young lives every year in the U.S., is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 10 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounts to more than 12 suicides a day from young people.
“More kids have died from suicide than school shootings in the past year,” Jones said.
Tri-County Times, April 13, 2018
What’s the Best Way to Treat Mental Health Problems in Kids?
Research finds the emerging field of integrative behavior health shows promise.
No one knows for sure, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 13 and 20 percent of youth ages 3 to 17 experience a mental health problem each year. This includes diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorders and Tourette syndrome.
In fact, many mental health problems that continue into adulthood – including substance abuse and behavioral problems – actually begin during childhood and adolescence. This issue raises many questions; maybe the most pressing is, what’s the best way to treat mental health problems in children?
Psychology Today, April 13, 2018
Irritability in childhood linked to teen suicide risk
Most children experience mood swings from time to time, but kids with chronic irritability and serious depression or anxiety are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in adolescence, suggests a large Canadian study.
Based on records for 1,430 children followed for up to 17 years, researchers found that those who were particularly irritable and depressed or anxious between ages 6 and 12 were twice as likely as peers to think about suicide or make a suicide attempt between ages 13 and 17.
For girls in particular, the combination of high irritability and depression or anxiety in childhood was tied to a three-fold higher risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts in the teen years, the study found.
Why is there a higher suicide rate in the spring?
Thanks to heightened public awareness of seasonal affective disorder, conventional wisdom now says that most suicides occur during the cold, dark months of winter, but that’s wrong — it’s actually the warmer months. It’s a serious problem, too: In the U.S. in 2015, for example, the CDC reports there were 44,193 suicides, or 13.7 for every thousand people. It’s been suggested that seasonal depression might have to do with springtime taxes, but something more biological might be the cause. It could be pollen.
Devastating obituary details bullied 12-year-old’s ‘intense pain’ before suicide
A 12-year-old in North Dakota who took her own life after being bullied at school “experienced intense pain most people her age will never know,” her heart-wrenching obituary reads.
Cherish “Chance” Houle had been living in a foster home, in addition to dealing with bullies at her Bismarck school, before her death on Saturday.
“Those who loved Cherish didn’t know how unbearable the pain she was experiencing had become for her,” her relatives wrote. “The support and love she was able to receive from those around her wasn’t enough to heal the scars of the relentless bullying she had already suffered.”
New York Daily News, April 5, 2018
A.I. Could Accurately Predict Those at Risk of Suicide in the Future
Suicide results in approximately 44,965 American deaths each year and is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Deaths from cardiovascular disease and other ailments greatly outnumber those caused by suicide, but suicide rates have either remained steady or even increased in certain parts of the U.S., while heart condition casualties have been decreasing.
For science journalist Lydia Denworth, this is a clear sign that current efforts to prevent suicide aren’t working. She believes doctors simply aren’t able to identify potential risk factors and act on them for all of their patients. Denworth tells Cheddar’s Morning Bell that artificial intelligence developed by social scientists could predict who is most at risk so doctors can act more effectively instead of spending time analyzing medical records.
‘We’re racking our brains’: A series of teen suicides has left the Herriman High School community searching for answers
When Herriman High School Principal James Birch heard about the first student suicide last summer, he immediately thought of his own two teenagers and sat them down for a talk.
“I made it known that I loved them, and that anything they were going through, they could talk to me about it,” Birch said in an emotional interview. “It didn’t matter how small it was — I was interested, and I would be there.”
Since that summer day, four more students enrolled at Herriman High have died by suicide, and state officials say they’re investigating several other youth suicide cases in that southwestern corner of Salt Lake County. It’s still too early in the probe, authorities say, to know whether the incidents are linked by anything other than location.
The Salt Lake Tribune, April 5, 2018
CDC Begins Investigation on Stark County Suicide Cluster After 12 Adolescent Deaths in Less Than a Year
In the last seven months, the communities in Stark County have experienced a concerning and tragic trend. Twelve teens in the Perry, Plain, Jackson, Northwest, and Canton local school districts have committed suicide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have arrived in Stark County to begin a two-week site visit in an attempt to detect the motivations and connections between a dozen suicides in an isolated location.
Kat Chat discusses suicide warning signs, prevention
Representatives from Kansas State’s Counseling Services and the Student Access Center hosted a Kat Chat presentation Tuesday for students on suicide prevention and the warning signs, titled “Below the Surface: Suicide Awareness and Prevention.”
The Kat Chat was hosted by Paige Humphrey, senior in biology, and Sammie Hillstock, senior in human development and family science. Humphrey stressed the importance of starting the conversation with the person who you may feel is considering suicide and noticing the risk factors of suicide.
Suicide is the leading cause of death among college students, according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. A study done in 2012 by the SPRC reports about 6.6 to 7.5 percent of college students consider suicide. With the Kansas State student population of 25,000, that means about 1,600 to 1,800 students consider suicide at K-State alone, Humphrey said.
Health Matters: Let’s Talk Mental Health with Children
Suicide is the third leading cause of death in children under the age of 14. A problem, Dr. Emad Salman, the regional medical officer of Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida, says can be prevented. “About one in five kids, that’s 20 percent of children, by the age of 14 will have a diagnosis of a mental health condition.”
Currently, mental health conditions have few options for care. “There’s a big fear of mental health. It’s a cultural fear,” said Dr. Salman.
The most common mental health conditions for children under 18 are anxiety and depression. “Most of the treatments is behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been scientifically proven to make a difference,” explained Dr. Salman.