News Archive: July, August, Sept. 2019
September 2019
These crisis text lines and apps are an alternative to get help without having to call the suicide prevention hotline
Suicide has become the second leading cause of death for young Americans aged 10 to 24, and the rate has skyrocketed over the past decade.
Research shows that teenagers prefer texting to talking on the phone, even with friends.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has a chat option, and there’s a 24-hour crisis text line available, too. Several suicide prevention apps are also free to download.
The rate of Americans aged 10 to 24 who die by suicide has skyrocketed over the past decade, becoming the second highest cause of death among the demographic.
Crisis hotlines like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have been touted as the No. 1 resource for people with suicidal thoughts and intentions. But the latest research on teenage technology use shows they prefer texting to talking on the phone, even with their friends.
After 16-year-old Channing Smith died by suicide last week, his brother, Joshua Smith, wondered in an interview with Insider whether a hotline is the most effective resource for young people who are preparing to take their own lives.
Suicide prevention: Putting the person at the center
The focus of this year’s World Mental Health Day on suicide prevention is very timely because although much is known about the epidemiology of suicide, its causes, and approaches to prevention, action and interventions are lacking across local, regional, and national levels for different population groups.
In this Editorial, we discuss the key findings and recommendations arising from the relevant evidence but argue that the focus on preventing suicide must extend beyond prevention of suicide mortality to addressing the loss of hope that underlies each attempt to end a person’s life.
PLOS | Medicine, Sept. 30, 2019
How Social Media Has Made Us More Willing to Talk About Suicide
“Daddy, daddy, daddy, come back!”
The 3-year-old cries from her bed.
“Daddy not coming back?” she asks between tears.
But she knows the answer. Her father, Denny Bates, died by suicide in March.
“I miss Dada,” she said.
The heart wrenching Facebook video posted in June has received more than 10 million views and has been shared more than 150k times. Titled “The reality of suicide,” it’s just one of multiple video and blog posts Dani Bates has posted to raise awareness about suicide and reduce the stigma around talking about it.
“It’s so visual and real and raw. I think that’s why it’s important to share the videos,” Bates said. “I could talk about Winnie’s grief all day, but seeing it and hearing it does something to a person. It hits so much harder.”
Say Something app for students addresses suicide, violence and safety concerns
School districts across the Bay Area are seeing life-saving results from a new app in which students report anonymous tips.
It’s called Say Something and students are using the app to notify administrators about thoughts of suicide, violence and more.
The idea isn’t new. If you see something, say something. It’s a simple message, now in the form of an app, encouraging students to anonymously intervene.
“We had a student that was contemplating suicide and several friends reported it online on the Say Something app,” said Brentwood Unified School District Director of Student Services, Chris Calabrese.
Chatham Township’s Fourth Annual ‘Out of the Darkness’ Walk Draws More than 400, Raises $83K for Suicide Prevention
Valerie Olpp reads the poem, “We Remember Them” by Rabbi Jack Riemer
CHATHAM, NJ – Jessica Romeo’s mother was lost to suicide 20 years ago, but the Chatham Township resident still honors her memory every year.
Like everyone else at the fourth annual “Out of the Darkness” community walk held Saturday at Cougar Field to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Romeo has a story to tell about someone close to her that she lost to suicide. Romeo’s mother, Rhonda Romeo, was a school nurse at the South Orange Middle School who succumbed to bipolar depression.
“So many students at her funeral came up to us and said that my mother had stopped them from taking their lives,” Romeo said. “She had a Hot Chocolate Club at school, where a student who was having a hard time could stay with her until they felt better. She knew how to help so many others, but she couldn’t help herself.”
Tap into Chatham, Sept. 21, 2019
A College Suicide Prevention Bill Would Put Mental Health Resources On Student IDs
As university admissions rates decrease, workloads increase, and career opportunities become more competitive, college students continue to face mental health struggles. Over 60% of college students in the U.S. reported feeling anxiety over the past year, according to the American College Health Association’s Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment, and 10.5% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 25 reported having suicidal thoughts in 2017, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. That means there are a lot of students who may need help — and who may not know how to get it.
“It’s easy to isolate oneself and have the sense that no one is really tracking on you, like in high school or when living at home,” Eileen Purdy, MSW, an anxiety therapist, tells Bustle about the transition to college. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the second leading cause of death for 10-34 year olds in the U.S. Among the general U.S. population, suicide ranks as the tenth leading cause of death.
Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters
Patterns show places where people who intend to kill themselves go—and give health workers better chances to stop them.
Hanging on Kimberly Repp’s office wall in Hillsboro, Ore., is a sign in Latin: “Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae,” meaning “This is a place where the dead delight in helping the living.”
For medical examiners, it is a mission. Their job is to investigate deaths and learn from them, for the benefit of us all. Repp, however, is not a medical examiner; she is a microbiologist. She is also an epidemiologist for Oregon’s Washington County, where she had been accustomed to studying infectious diseases such as flu or norovirus outbreaks among the living.
But in 2012 she was asked by county officials to look at suicide. The request introduced her to the world of death investigations and also appears to have led to something remarkable: in this suburban county of 600,000, just west of Portland, the suicide rate now is going down. That result is remarkable because national suicide rates have risen, despite decades-long efforts to reverse the deadly trend.
Scientific American, Sept. 20, 2019
Addressing Suicide and Depression on Campus, these preventative measures can help students and faculty
Suicide is a difficult topic to discuss earnestly. It can be particularly difficult for college students, especially if they are in a new environment, far from home, and without a nearby network of friends and family.
While one can easily cite statistics highlighting the growing number of suicides in the United States and call attention to the fact that it is now the second leading cause of death among college students, the actual process of reaching out to someone who may be contemplating suicide either due to a mental health crisis or other factors is more difficult. As September is National Suicide Prevention Month, it seems more than appropriate to discuss how one can help prevent suicide on campus.
Psychology Today, Sept. 17, 2019
What Are You Doing to Prevent Suicide? by Dr. Mark Friedlander and Dr. Christine Moutier
Suicide is a serious and growing public health problem. Currently, suicide is one of the leading causes of death among America’s workforce, representing the second leading cause of death for adults ages 25-34 and the fourth leading cause of death for adults ages 35-54.
As employees are spending an increasing amount of time in the office, employers cannot ignore the effect that personal and work-related stress has on employee mental health. Among adults who have been employed in the past 12 months, more than one in 10 have missed work days because they were too anxious (14%) or too depressed (16%) to go to work, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).
Clearly, mental health also affects employee performance, including absenteeism and decreased productivity. Long-term, these issues also have a significant effect on a company’s bottom line – suicide cost the U.S. economy $70 billion in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Fortunately, there are steps employers can take to support the mental health of their employees and turn the tide on the suicide problem in this country.
Antidepressant Use Does Not Prevent Suicide, Study Finds
A new study has found that antidepressants are ineffective for reducing suicide attempts. The researchers found that about 20% of participants attempted suicide after being hospitalized for depression, whether they took antidepressants or not.
The researchers found a large spike in suicides just after initiating antidepressant use: up to 4 times higher in the month just after first taking an antidepressant than in later months.
However, as there was also an increase just before taking an antidepressant, the researchers argue that this spike in suicidality is due to “disease severity” rather than the antidepressant use. The researchers conclude that antidepressants do not reduce suicidality.
Merete Osler led the study at the Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals in Denmark. It was published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.
Mad in America, Sept. 17, 2019
Facebook bans self-harm images in fight against suicide
Facebook Inc. will no longer allow graphic images of self-harm on its platform as it tightens its policies on suicide content amid growing criticism of how social media companies moderate violent and potentially dangerous content.
The social network also said last Tuesday that self-injury related content will now become harder to search for on Instagram and that the company will ensure that it does not appear as recommended material in the Explore section on the photo-sharing app.
Facebook’s statement came on World Suicide Prevention Day and follows Twitter Inc.’s remarks that content related to self-harm would no longer be reported as abusive in an effort to reduce the stigma around suicide.
New Hampshire Union Leader, Sept. 16, 2019
As Student Suicides Rise, A Harvard Case Opens New Questions About Schools’ Responsibility
Luke Tang was heading into the spring of freshman year at Harvard University in 2015 when he attempted to take his own life.
A skilled violinist and math whiz and the youngest son of Chinese immigrants, Tang survived the attempt and was whisked away to a psychiatric facility under Harvard’s purview. To return to his studies, school officials required that the 19-year-old sign a contract promising to follow his doctors’ treatment plan.
But Tang did not keep up with mental health services after going away for the summer. And Harvard officials apparently did not check up with him upon his return in the fall. About two weeks after arriving on campus, Tang killed himself in the basement of his college dormitory.
Since then, his parents Christina and Wendell Tang have been searching for answers.
“We thought he was fine,” Christina Tang said in a phone interview from her New Orleans home. “We thought when he got out of the hospital, he got his help.”
Between 2007 and 2017, nine Harvard undergraduates in Massachusetts took their own lives, according to an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. Six of them, including Tang, were of Asian descent. Asian Americans only make up about 20 percent of Harvard’s undergraduate student body.
Study: More U.S. Teen Girls Are Victims of Suicide
The gender gap in teen suicide is smaller than previously estimated, with more girls dying by suicide each year, a new study contends.
Suicide death rates among 10- to 19-year-old girls have been systematically underestimated, while rates among boys have been overestimated, according to the report published Sept. 13 in JAMA Network Open.
Experts have pegged the male-to-female gender gap in suicide among teens at 3-to-1, but it’s really closer to 2-to-1, researchers said.
“The reduced gender gap in suicide is a surprise,” said lead researcher Dr. Bin Yu, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of Florida. “It is really important that we not underestimate the risk of suicide among girls.”
Facebook wants to fight teen suicide. Experts aren’t sure they’re doing it right
Suicide among young people is on the rise, and many point to social media as the cause.
Facebook announced in a blog post this week that it is taking steps to fight the youth suicide epidemic, including sharing data about how its users talk about suicide and self-harm and hiring a safety policy manager focusing on health and well-being.
Among the noteworthy changes in policy is Facebook’s decision to “no longer allow graphic cutting images.” The company, which owns Instagram, said it would also “[make] it harder to search for this type of content and [keep] it from being recommended in Explore.” That’s in addition to an announcement made in February that Instagram would start blurring images that depicted graphic self-harm. (Facebook did not return a request for comment.)
But while researchers studying the rise in suicide among young people applaud Facebook for making an effort, they say it’s unclear how the company’s very public announcement will translate into tangible results.
The idea that social media is behind a worrisome spate of youth suicides in the last few years is increasingly well documented. While not limited to social sites, the phenomenon of suicide contagion—where suicides reported in the media lead to an increase in suicides or suicide attempts—is particularly dangerous when mixed with digital platforms designed for viral sharing.
MIT Technology Review, Sept. 11, 2019
What you need to know about suicide prevention: A doctor weighs in
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates have increased more than 30 percent in half of all U.S. states since 1999. The CDC also reports that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and the 2nd leading cause of death of people ages 10 to 34.
Yahoo Lifestyle spoke to Elizabeth Lombardo, a clinical psychologist, about what everyone needs to know about suicide and what the warning signs are.
“The number one indicator is actually not depression, but hopelessness,” Lombardo says. “Hopelessness is thinking, ‘Things will never get better.’”
“Life is up and down. We all have times when things are going well, and eventually things will not go so well,” says Lombardo. “When you’re in that kind of rut, if you wait it out, you will always go up.”
Yahoo! Lifestyle, Sept. 12, 2019
The Suicide Rate is Rising in the U.S.
Alexis Wnuk, a science writer for Brainfacts.org worked with designer Adrienne Tong to produce this exceptional info-graphic.
One sentence introduces this image: “Since 2001, more than 300,000 Americans have been victims of homicide. More than twice as many — 638,467 — died by suicide in that same period.”
Brainfacts.org, Sept, 10, 2019
Can a New Diagnosis Help Prevent Suicide?
There is no established method of identifying patients in immediate danger of attempting suicide. Some researchers are trying to change this.
One night in her Nashville apartment, Bre Banks read a comment from her boyfriend on Facebook. They were in a shaky spell, and his words seemed proof she would lose him. She put her laptop down on the couch and headed to the bedroom to cry. “My legs seized up, and I fell,” she recalled. With her knees and forehead pressing into the carpet, she heard a voice that said, “Slit your wrists, slit your wrists.” She saw herself in the bathtub with the blood flowing. She was terrified that if she moved she would die.
Banks, then 25, was a disciplined graduate student with a job and close friends and had no psychiatric history. “I had never considered suicide an option,” she says. But for the next three days, she couldn’t sleep while the voice and disturbing images persisted. After seeing a therapist, she decided to teach herself techniques from dialectical behavior therapy, one of the few treatments shown to reduce suicidality. The voices and images came back over the next few months, but eventually faded. Eight years later, Banks now evaluates suicide prevention programs across Tennessee as a manager at the large mental health provider Centerstone’s research institute, and she and the same boyfriend just celebrated their 10th anniversary.
In the public imagination, suicide is often understood as the end of a torturous decline caused by depression or another mental illness. But clinicians and researchers know that suicidal crises frequently come on rapidly, escalating from impulse to action within a day, hours, or just minutes. Many also point to the fact that they may strike people like Banks, who are otherwise in good mental health.
Teen suicide: What parents and caregivers need to know
Is your teen at risk of suicide? While no teen is immune, there are factors that can make some adolescents more vulnerable than others. Understand how to tell if your teen might be suicidal and where to turn for help and treatment.
Read this article to learn:
What makes teens vulnerable to suicide?
What are the risk factors for teen suicide?
What role do antidepressants play?
What are the warning signs that a teen might be suicidal?
What should I do if I suspect my teen is suicidal?
What can I do to prevent teen suicide?
Suicide Is A Public Health Epidemic: Prevention Is A Start, But Not Enough
In spite of increased awareness, suicide continues to be a major public health problem in the United States, and around the world. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., where the rate is higher than at any point since World War II. The majority of suicides in the U.S. are among working age adults. Business leaders are uniquely positioned to make a significant contribution to addressing this crisis.
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention urges business leaders to be “visible, vocal and visionary” in directing suicide prevention efforts. Communication and connection are critical in combatting suicide and mental illness—and both are at the top of any business leader’s job description. By putting themselves upfront in their company’s mental health initiatives, business leaders can go a long way toward setting the tone for a productive conversation about suicide prevention.
Working age suicides have increased 34% in the U.S. in the years 2000-2016, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC puts the promotion of “social connectedness” at the top of its list of recommendations. Similarly, the organizers of World Suicide Prevention Day are highlighting working together and collaboration in their outreach efforts.
One person dies every 40 seconds from suicide, World Health Organization says
The number of people worldwide who die from suicide is declining but one person still kills themselves every 40 seconds, according to new figures from the World Health Organization, which said countries needed to do more to stop these preventable deaths.
Between 2010 and 2016, the global suicide rate decreased by 9.8%, the UN health body said in its second report on the issue. The only region to see an increase was the Americas.
“Every death is a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programs in a sustainable way,” said WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
WHO said close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year, more than those lost to malaria, breast cancer, or war and homicide, calling it a “serious global public health issue.” It said only 38 countries had suicide prevention strategies.
Dr. Christine Moutier on the ‘Unintended Consequences’ of Social Media: It’s time to stop the stigma and promote the positive.
On Sunday September 8, all Entercom radio stations across the country marked the start of National Suicide Prevention Week with a special commercial-free broadcast of I’m Listening, a two-hour program dedicated to ending the stigma of talking about mental health.
Along with artists, athletes, and listeners sharing their story, Dr. Christine Moutier from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention joined the show to talk about the steps being taken to curb the “unintended consequences” of social media.
“We’re learning so much about what it means to live out this newfound value on mental health,” explains AFSP’s Chief Medical Officer. “Certain things like the likes, and some types of social media utilization have really led to worsening in mental health. Young people, advocates who are young people have learned that for themselves there are times that they should unplug and take a break for the sake of their mental health.”
Four Leading National Organizations Launch Suicide Prevention Template Plan for Schools
Suicide prevention among young people is a growing concern across the country. According to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 31.5 percent of American high school students reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 17.2 percent reported they have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. This alarming shift has significant implications for schools, which have a critical role and responsibility in identifying and providing interventions for students at risk for suicide ideation and behavior.
Having effective suicide prevention policies is essential to meeting this responsibility. To support schools’ efforts, four leading national organizations – the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American School Counselor Association, the National Association of School Psychologists and The Trevor Project – have collaborated to update the Model School Policy, a comprehensive guidebook for school administrators and policy makers containing best practices in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention policies for K-12 schools.
Access to an evidence-based model policy matters. In 2014 when the first Model School Policy was released, only five states required suicide prevention procedures for their school districts. Today, through the efforts of the above organizations and other volunteer advocates, there are 22 states with laws that require K-12 school districts to have a suicide prevention policy in place.
National Suicide Prevention Week: How Advocates, Artists Hope To Spark The Conversation
National Suicide Prevention Week starts tomorrow.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, killing about 47,000 people each year. But many people suffer in silence, because of the stigma.
Bob Gebbia, CEO of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Alex Boyé, an artist trying to save lives through music, are working to change that.
“The important thing is: It is a preventable cause of death, there’s something we can do about it,” Gebbia told CBS2’s Cindy Hsu on Saturday. “That’s why Suicide Prevention Week is an important time to open that conversation up.”
When it comes to warning signs, Gebbia said you should listen and look for changes in your family or friends’ behavior.
“If they’re talking about feeling like a burden or feeling hopeless, or they don’t want to live anymore, we should take that seriously,” he said. “Those changes in behavior can include things like sleeping too much or too little, increased use of drugs and alcohol – that’s a serious problem. That could be an indication that they’re spiraling down.”
CBS News New York, Sept. 7, 2019
Economic hardship tied to increase in U.S. suicide rates, especially in rural areas
Whether they are densely populated or deeply rural, few communities in the United States have escaped a shocking increase in suicides over the last two decades. From 1999 to 2016 , suicide claimed the lives of 453,577 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 — enough to fill more than 1,000 jumbo jets.
Suicides reached a 50-year peak in 2017, the latest year for which reliable statistics are available. The vast majority of those suicides happened in the country’s cities and suburbs, where 80% of Americans live.
But a new study shows that the nation’s most rural counties have seen the toll of suicide rise furthest and fastest during those 18 years.
The new research ties high suicide rates everywhere to the unraveling of the social fabric that happens when local sports teams disband, beauty and barbershops close, and churches and civic groups dwindle. But in rural counties, especially, it finds a powerful link between suicide and economic deprivation — a measure that captures poverty, unemployment, low levels of education and reliance on government assistance.
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 2019
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Seize the Awkward campaign, in partnership with The JED Foundation and the Ad Council, continues to reach young people nationwide, encouraging them to have honest conversations with their friends about mental health, and giving them practical guidance on how to do so.
For Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, we’re pleased to announce the debut of these new videos created by musicians Aminé, Hayley Kiyoko, Christina Perri and Lindsey Stirling. Each artist shares a personal video story, demonstrating true vulnerability and urging young adults to create a safe space for their friends to open up about mental health challenges.
We hope you enjoy and share these videos, and help us to spread the word that any day is a good day to Seize the Awkward.
Click on the links below to view the new Seize the Awkward videos.
How to Talk To A Friend About Mental Health
Lindsey Stirling On Accepting The Help of Others
Hayley Kiyoko On The Importance of Keeping In Touch
Christina Perri On Keeping A Support System
Aminé On Discussing Mental Health
Why suicide prevention matters and what you can do
Every 12 minutes someone in the country dies of suicide, which has caused it to become the second leading cause of death for individuals between 18 and 34.
Anyone could be struggling with suicide; it affects all ages, genders and ethnicities. However, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, men are more likely to die by suicide, and certain demographic subgroups are at a higher risk, such as American Indian youth, middle-age people, as well as non-Hispanic white middle-aged and older males.
Why is this important? Nearly 45,000 suicides occurred in the United States in 2016 — more than twice the number of homicides, leading many experts and advocates to believe this should be viewed as a public health crisis.
How High Heat Can Impact Mental Health
Jeanetta Churchill is blasting the air conditioning in her Baltimore row house. A massive heat wave just swept through the city, with temperatures topping 100 degrees. “I don’t even want to see what my power bill is this coming month,” she says.
Keeping cool in the summer months isn’t just a matter of comfort, says Churchill. It helps her manage the symptoms of her bipolar disorder. Churchill says if she doesn’t keep her house cool enough to sleep through the night, she can spiral into a manic episode with fits of rapid talking, irrational purchases, or even suicidal thoughts.
She’s not alone. For the nearly 1 in 5 adults who experience mental illness, heat can be dangerous, according to Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Duckworth says prescribed medications are a major factor. If a patient is on anti-psychotics, for example, the medication can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate temperature, leading to dehydration or heat stroke, he says.
National Suicide Prevention Week is September 8-14. This year the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is encouraging people to create a safety net for those who are struggling – themselves included – by educating and inspiring them to feel as comfortable talking about mental health as they would their physical health. By knowing how to have a #RealConvo with the people in our lives, recognize the risks and warning signs for suicide, and understand the ways to connect to help, we can all play a role in making our communities safer.
We’ve created a toolkit filled with inspiration, guidance, social media sharables and more, enabling you to:
WATCH short, informative videos
SHARE images, and other goodies on social media
READ blogs featuring personal perspectives and expert guidance on how to have a #RealConvo
TAKE ACTION and get involved in the cause
The toolkit contains a calendar of events for September, including Twitter chats, as well as personal stories, #RealConvo guides, and further resources for those who are struggling. We’ll continue to add new social sharables, merchandise updates and more throughout the month.
So get excited! Together, we can make this the best National Suicide Prevention Week yet. Thank you for helping us to spread the word, get people talking more openly about mental health and suicide prevention, and make our communities and loved ones safer in the process.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Sept. 1, 2019
August 2019
This College Student Is a Leader in the Fight Against Teen Suicide
The nonprofit Young Minds Advocacy gives teens like Chloe Sorensen a bigger platform to advocate for mental health issues that matter to them, such as suicide prevention.
Eight days before Chloe Sorensen won a Young Leader award from Young Minds Advocacy for her work as a suicide prevention advocate, she lost another friend to suicide. For Sorensen, this wasn’t anything new. Sorensen is a recent graduate of Palo Alto’s Henry M. Gunn High School, the Silicon Valley school that made headlines for a spate of suicides in 2009. During Sorensen’s sophomore year alone, four teenagers committed suicide in her school district: one Gunn alum, two current students, and one student who attended crosstown rival Palo Alto High School.
Like others in the community, Sorensen felt waves of shock after each suicide cluster. On-campus grief support helped her to process her emotions. Unfortunately, suicide clusters — defined as three or more suicides in close proximity to each other — have occurred with increasing frequency in Palo Alto, where the rate is four times the national average.
But before they began happening at her school, suicide was more or less an abstract concept. “I had a few friends who dealt with mental health conditions, but never dealt with suicide,” Sorensen said. “As a 15 year old, that was a really difficult thing to process because I didn’t understand what was happening. But the way I dealt with that grief, shock and initial pain was by channeling it into something more positive.”
National Swell, August 31, 2019
Can suicide risk be detected in the blood?
A new clinical study aims to identify blood-based biomarkers for suicide risk, laying the foundation for a test that could help physicians identify people who are likely to self-harm and allow for earlier, life-saving intervention.
The project is the first longitudinal study of its kind, and is a collaboration between Van Andel Institute’s Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services’ Eric Achtyes, M.D., M.S., and Columbia University Department of Psychiatry’s J. John Mann, M.D. It is supported by a newly awarded five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health.
“Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S. and, unfortunately, rates continue to increase,” Brundin said. “Suicidal ideation is more than mental — there are measurable biological contributors such as byproducts of chronic inflammation that influence a person’s likelihood for self-harm. Leveraging these markers could hold the key to helping people before it is too late.”
Van Andel Institute, August 28, 2019
New Play In Chicago Aims To Teach Warning Signs About Suicide
The Morning Insiders heard about a unique program starting in Chicago on Wednesday. It’s a theatrical production designed to prevent suicide.
CBS 2’s Lauren Victory went behind the scenes of this potentially life-saving play.
The build-up to suicide is not always obvious, but it’s apparent that deaths in this way are building up nationwide.
In Illinois 15- to 24-year-olds have been dying by suicide at an increasing rate since 2013.
LaurenSage Browning – a 21-year-old writer, producer, and actress – wanted to show Chicago some warning signs. The loss of a good friend inspired her cross-country activism.
“Not in a shout in your face and wave banners around way; in a way that was compelling and relatable and honest and sympathetic,” she said.
Browning wrote and produced her play, titled “I Could Take a Nap, but Killing Myself Would Be More Productive.”
After a few tweaks at dress rehearsal, the cast is ready to take Chicago inside the journal (and mind) of 18-year-old Sofia.
The audience watches as Sofia struggles with seemingly normal teen troubles related to academics, social media and fighting with family and friends.
This DC-Based Traveling Exhibit Wants to Encourage Conversations About Mental Health on College Campuses
Photos and stories about their lives are pinned on the backpacks.
The Active Minds exhibit Send Silence Packing will be at George Washington University on September 5.
For the first time in seven years, the Send Silence Packing exhibit is coming back to DC. The event is the brain child of Active Minds, a nonprofit headquartered in DC dedicated to promoting conversations about mental health and suicide prevention on college campuses.
According to Active Minds, the second most-common cause of death for college students is suicide. It also estimates that 39 percent of college students will experience a mental health issue and two-thirds of students experiencing depression or anxiety will not seek treatment. The exhibit, which has been traveling the country for over a decade, aims to change that by connecting students with mental health resources and spreading awareness about the importance of discussing mental health
The exhibit will be on display at George Washington University on September 5. Backpacks will be spread out amongst the school’s University Yard, each one representing a college student who took his or her own life. Pinned to the backpacks will be photographs of the students and stories about their lives donated by their families and loved ones.
Washingtonian, August 28, 2019
Suicide hotlines now printed on the back of student IDs for grades 7-12
Some days at work are harder than others for Delisa Noebel, but being there for someone in crisis is rewarding — and lifesaving.
Noebel is a substance abuse disorder specialist with the crisis hotline through Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery Services.
But once before she was an addict and attempted suicide several times. She knows it can be scary to call someone for help. She knows because she’s had to seek help. And she knows because she speaks to people in crisis on an almost daily basis.
“It can be scary, stressful. You can be taken aback, but you were there in that moment with a person and that’s all that matters,” Noebel said. “Once we find out what’s going on, we apply the skills we know to help them. It’s very rewarding.”
To connect youth in crisis with immediate help, a new law that went into effect in July means students in seventh through 12th grades in California now have lifesaving phone numbers in the palm of their hands.
Bakersfield.com, August 24, 2019
Breaking the silence about youth suicide
A ninth-grader at Provo High School in Utah gave his watch to his best friend, saying he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. He told five other friends he planned to kill himself, but no one told an adult. The young man committed suicide the next day.
Tragedies like this happen every day, says Dr. Greg Hudnall, founder of HOPE4UTAH, which develops teams of peer mentors at schools across Utah and in 14 other states.
“Before they attempt suicide, seven or eight out of 10 young people will reach out to a friend,” Hudnall says. “They’ll give some kind of clue, some kind of warning sign.”
But they’ll rarely let adults in on their deadly secret, say Hudnall and Genevieve Morris, who coordinates suicide-prevention efforts for public schools in Grand Junction, Colo.
“What research shows us is that the most beloved and well-connected teacher is still not going to know first about that student that is really struggling,” Morris says. “Their friends are going to know. They know what’s cool before we know, and they know who’s really struggling before we know.”
Given that reality — and the fact that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5,700 Americans ages 15-24 kill themselves each year — it’s incumbent upon parents and Scout leaders alike to understand the risk factors and warning signs of suicide. We must make sure our kids and the young people we serve know these indicators as well.
Scouting Magazine, August 25, 2019
College can be hard on your mental health. Here are 7 ways to cope.
People may joke about the carefree lives of college students, but the unique stress of succeeding in higher education is real. Between managing course work, finding a circle of supportive friends, figuring out your identity as a young adult, and paying for the privilege of a diploma, college can be the equivalent of a pressure cooker.
Indeed, research shows that a growing number of college students say they’ve experienced a mental health condition, including panic attacks and anxiety. It appears that the rate of mental health diagnoses is increasing, and that students feel more comfortable talking about their experiences and seeking help than previous generations of college-age youth.
Three suicide prevention strategies show real promise. How can they reach more people?
Can a three-digit phone number avert suicides on a grand scale? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission recommended designating 988 as a nationwide suicide prevention hotline number. Currently, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached around the clock through the more cumbersome 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Many paths in life can bring someone to the brink of suicide, and a shorter phone number might seem to be a naïvely simple solution. But researchers have repeatedly found that simple works: Callers routinely credit the existing hotline, which is on track to take 2.5 million calls this year, with keeping them safe. “It’s one of the most basic human realities,” says Lifeline Director John Draper, a counseling psychologist with Vibrant Emotional Health, the New York City nonprofit that administers the hotline. “Helping people feel understood and cared about saves lives.”
More than 47,000 people died by suicide in the United States in 2017. Although the global suicide rate has dropped, in the United States it has increased 33% since 1999. Beating back that number is challenging.
Paths Out of Darkness. My younger sister died by suicide. Can science succeed in helping others?
When my younger sister died by suicide 7 years ago, at age 30, the loss was shattering. If I considered the role of science at all, it was through the lens of failure—its failure to save her, along with the thousands who died before and after. More often, I pushed science aside. Given the mysteries of brain chemistry and its confluence with life experience, could science really decipher what drives an individual to want to die? Could it predict who is most at risk and find ways to intervene in the face of grim obstacles? I was doubtful.
At first glance, statistics seemed to back this gloomy outlook. The suicide rate in the United States is rising, and more than 47,000 people died in 2017. Among 10- to 34-year-olds in the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death; for 35- to 54-year-olds, it ranks fourth.
New Research Casts Doubt On Connection Between Smartphone Use And Teen Mental Health
Some argue it is a case of correlation, not causation, and that the threat is overblown.
Fact–more teens and tweens, particularly girls, report being depressed and anxious compared with a decade ago. Suicides are also up. The reasons why are not clear. Some researchers say with nearly every teenager using a smartphone these days, digital media must share some of the blame. We take a look at the controversy in this week’s All Tech Considered.
New Idea for Suicide Prevention Hotline: Just Dial 988
The F.C.C. is considering shortening the number from its current 10 digits.
Just as 911 is universal to Americans during emergencies, a federal agency says the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline should be shortened to three digits: 988.
The Federal Communications Commission recommended simplifying the hotline’s current 10-digit number in a sweeping report this week spurred by federal legislation passed last year that called for improvements to the system.
The effort comes at a time when counseling experts say there is a deepening national mental health crisis and there has been a spate of suicides among veterans, police officers and high-profile figures.
The New York Times, August 15, 2019
Trauma begets trauma: Bullying associated with increased suicide attempts among 12-to-15-year-olds
International study finds bullying victimization is associated with suicide attempts across 48 countries.
A new study reports that bullying victimization may increase the risk of suicide attempts among young adolescents by approximately 3-times worldwide. A new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, reports that bullying victimization may increase the risk of suicide attempts among young adolescents by approximately three-times worldwide.
“Globally, approximately 67,000 adolescents die of suicide each year and identifying modifiable risk factors for adolescent suicide is a public health priority,” said lead author Ai Koyanagi, MD, and Research Professor at Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu, Barcelona, Spain.
The findings are based on nationally representative data collected through the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global School-based Student Health Survey, which is a school-based survey conducted in multiple countries across the globe.
Science Daily, August 15, 2019
Social Media Hurts Girls More Than Boys
The public and experts alike have blamed social media for a long list of mental health issues, including rising rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior among America’s youth. But research on the subject is conflicting. One study published this spring, for example, found that social media use likely doesn’t have a terribly large impact on teenagers’ life satisfaction, despite all those expert warnings.
A new study published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health suggests the issue is even more nuanced. Social media is associated with mental health issues, the research says—but only under certain circumstances, and only for certain people.
In girls, frequent social-media use seemed to harm health when it led to either cyberbullying and/or inadequate sleep and exercise. But these factors did not seem to have the same effect on boys, and the study didn’t pick up on specific ways that social networks could be harming them.
Your Teens Are at All-Time High Risk for Mental Health Issues at College: What Can You Do?
Here’s the grim news from a new report conducted by Barnes & Noble College Insights: Generation Z is suffering from a crushing amount of stress in the college years, more than any other generation before it (hey, no snorting or scoffing over there, Boomers and Gen X). What’s going on, and more importantly, how can we parents help mitigate the mental health challenges Gen Z is facing during their university years?
Let’s go back to the report, titled “Mental Health & Well-Being on Campus: How We Better Care for the Whole Student,” released by a branch of Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. The report surveyed current college students as well as their parents to get a broad sense of the state of mental health among college and university students today.
SheKnows/Parenting, August 14, 2019
Why Research on Suicide Is a Vital Part of the Gun Debate
Data on suicide is often ignored but can inform policymakers in key ways.
Suicide rates are rising in nearly every state. According to a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “during 1999–2016, suicide rates increased significantly in 44 states, with 25 states experiencing increases >30%.”
Suicides make up almost two-thirds of gun-related deaths. Nearly 25,000 people die each year by firearm suicide, according to data from the CDC. In 2017 alone, around 40,000 people died from guns, over 60% of which were from suicide.
While women attempt suicide more often, men are more likely to die by suicide because they choose more lethal means such as firearms. According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, “women are at a greater risk for suicidal ideation, attempts, and medically treated attempts than men.”
Psychology Today, August 13, 2019
How The CDC’s Reluctance To Use The ‘F-Word’ — Firearms — Hinders Suicide Prevention
The nation’s foremost public health agency shies away from discussing the important link in this country between suicide and access to guns.
That’s according to documents obtained by NPR that suggest the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead relies on vague language and messages about suicide that effectively downplay and obscure the risk posed by firearms.
Guns in the United States kill more people through suicide than homicide.
Almost 40,000 people died from guns in 2017 alone — 60% of those deaths were suicides. Guns are the most common method used for suicide.
‘It’s got to end’: Mom, daughter open up about multigenerational suicide struggles
Daisha Bischoff was just 11 years old the first time she tried to kill herself. Her great-grandmother had just lost her battle with brain cancer. Bischoff had just lost the only person she thought actually loved her.
“I took half of a bottle of ibuprofen and half a bottle of Tylenol and sat in the bathtub with a knife and tried to just stab myself,” she said.
She eventually gave up. The pain of forcing a knife through her stomach was too much to bear.
About 4 ½ years and multiple attempts later, Bischoff felt like she couldn’t get herself out of a perpetual state of depression.
“Each night when I thought about it, I was just like, cry and go to sleep and the next day will come. The sun always rises,” she said.
5 questions you can use to check in on your mental health every day
“It’s common for us to schedule a routine visit to the doctor when we aren’t feeling our best, so it should be common for us to check in with our mental health to ensure that we are physically, mentally and emotionally in tune,” writes author, expressive coach, and licensed social worker Minaa B. on a recent Instagram post.
It’s true: a 2018 poll conducted by Well+Good found that of the 2,700 people surveyed, 95 percent struggle with stress and 92 percent struggle with anxiety. However, 20 percent had never shared their feelings about either because they believe such mental obstacles are no big deal. The daily grind has a way of distracting from the basic human need to take an emotional time-out. Now that mental health realness is the order of every day, caring for your brain should no longer be an afterthought.
Still, it’s not always easy to separate yourself from a looming deadline or children who need your attention whenever your mental health comes calling. But these five questions (courtesy of Minaa B.) should be stashed in your back pocket for whenever that happens. A Q&A with your mental well-being isn’t an indulgence—it’s a necessity. Make an appointment to do it every single day.
Robin Williams’ Death and Subsequent Suicide Contagion: New research shows more suicides after Williams’ death. Is the media to blame?
Five years ago this week, Robin Williams died by suicide. Given Williams’ status as a much-loved and much-respected global celebrity, this made worldwide news.
Since then, researchers across North America have conducted a series of research studies related to Robin Williams’ suicide, centered upon the concept of suicide contagion, also known as copycat suicides, imitation suicides or the Werther effect.
What Is Suicide Contagion?
A large corpus of research indicates that suicide mortality increases after the death of a well-known celebrity. This appears to be most marked in the immediate days and weeks following the high-profile suicide. This is known as suicide contagion.
It is theorized that this increase is due to at-risk individuals identifying with the celebrity and their action. Such identification can lead individuals to perceive the celebrity’s suicide as a heroic and decisive act worthy of emulation, with suicide seen as a possible response to ongoing struggles.
Psychology Today, August 6, 2019
“Your life matters”: Suicide prevention hotline number carved into family farm’s corn maze
“Your life matters.” That is the message a family of farmers from Menomonie, Wisconsin wants the world to know. The Govin family always carves a unique message into their farm’s corn maze. This summer, they carved an important one: information for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Govin’s Meats & Berries shared an image of their new corn maze on Facebook, with a simple explanation behind its meaning. “We have always picked a theme that has meaning to our family and this year suicide was something we unfortunately had to face and learn about,” the family wrote. “We hope to make a difference in someone’s life and help them understand that they matter!”
Five Suicides Linked to Frat Bro Fascinated With Death
A former Truman State University student is being sued by the parents of two students who committed suicide at their fraternity, Alpha Kappa Lambda. The lawsuit states that Brandon Grossheim encouraged Alexander David Mullins, Joshua Michael Thomas, and three unnamed others by giving them “advice on how to commit suicide.” The deaths occurred during the 2016–17 academic year.
According to the Kansas City Star, Mullins had hanged himself in his room at the frat house and Thomas was found hanging in a storage closet. The third suicide was a member of the fraternity, while the fourth was someone who was not a student but was in their social circle. Grossheim is also linked to a death of an unnamed woman that is still under investigation.
Suicide Is a Tendency, Not a Destiny, Says Suicide Researcher
Danuta Wasserman, who is a professor of psychiatry and suicidology at Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute and the founder and head of the national Swedish suicide research and prevention center, spoke to Calcalist during a recent visit to Israel.
According to Wasserman, suicidal tendencies can be genetic in nature. Research shows that between 30% and 55% of suicidal tendencies can be traced back to genetically transferred traits, she said. Certain hereditary psychiatric syndromes, such as schizophrenia, also raise the risk of suicidal behavior, as do some biological processes that are controlled by genetic makeup, she explained.
July 2019
Addressing Suicide Risk in Trying Times: How can we safeguard those at risk?
In April, a Global Emotions Report by Gallup showed that people worldwide are sadder, more afraid, and angrier than ever before. This news may not hit you as a surprise. The sense of heaviness in a recent talk about the state of the world is palpable. It seems every day we are struck by dire existential warnings, environmental disasters, mass violence, and painful personal stories. There’s been a lingering question of how this is affecting people’s mental health and how it will continue to do so. For those of us in the field of suicidology, we worry that these effects could be life-threatening.
In the United States, the suicide rate increased by 30 percent from 2000 to 2016. It’s hard to pinpoint a single explanation for this increase. However, there are certain societal stresses that we’ve learned can have an effect. For example, studies have connected financial worries to a rising suicide rate among baby boomers. A 2010 meta-analysis showed a link between debt and suicide, while other research has revealed that even the reporting of economic downturns and hardships are associated with an increase in the suicide rate.
Psychology Today, July 31, 2019
Putting Guidelines For Reporting On Suicide Into Practice
NPR overall is indeed usually careful about its reporting on suicide. With occasional exceptions, such as those I wrote about in 2018, for the most part NPR has followed the guidelines from experts. Covering the topic is particularly complicated because, according to the guidelines from medical experts, dozens of studies have found that news coverage, when done incorrectly, can increase the likelihood of suicide, even as covering the topic is important to change public misperceptions.
Weekend Edition Saturday has been grappling with that balance recently. Earlier this year, the show decided to tackle the topic of suicide in an occasional series of about a half-dozen reports that are airing over several months. Host Scott Simon said the staff had been following the increase in suicide rates in recent years, with seemingly multiple causes, and “we felt that it would be useful to try and see why that was going on.” The second report, on suicide among seniors, ran Saturday; the first report, on police officer suicides, ran in May.
After 3 student suicides, Cedar Springs works to prevent another
Over the course of two school years, three Cedar Springs students died by suicide. Now the school district is working to prevent any other tragedies like this from happening again.
Kelli Kobayashi’s son Evan was one of those students. He took his life in 2015.
“He had access to a gun, and he took his life. We didn’t have signs, um no. It was very much a complete shock as it is for survivors of suicide,” Kobayashi said.
It was the beginning of a shockwave that rippled throughout Cedars Springs after two other students also died by suicide.
Fox 17 West Michigan, July 29, 2019
Under “Conrad’s Law,” Coercing Someone into Suicide Would Be Illegal in Massachusetts
The family of the man at the center of the Michelle Carter texting suicide case is calling for more specific legislation surrounding cases like theirs.
As Michelle Carter appeals her manslaughter conviction for convincing Conrad Roy to commit suicide to the Supreme Court, Roy’s family is filing legislation to memorialize him.
In a case that made national headlines, Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after encouraging Roy over text message to die by suicide in 2014 and sentenced to 15 months in prison. However, Carter’s conviction was puzzling to some.
“A lot of people looked at this case and they said, ‘Manslaughter? This isn’t manslaughter, telling someone to kill themselves,’” Northeastern professor and WGBH legal analyst Daniel Medwed said on WGBH’s Morning Edition.
Manslaughter fit Carter’s deeds like “an ill-fitting suit,” Medwed said in a press release from State Senator Barry Finegold’s office, adding that Massachusetts needs a law that specifically addresses coerced suicide. Massachusetts is one of only ten states in the country that does not have such a law, according to the press release.
Boston Magazine, July 24, 2019
Why Mourning Celebrities Who Die by Suicide Can Be Tricky
Mourning celebrities who die by suicide can be a tricky thing. On the one hand, people have a tendency to share stories, memories and videos of the individual. But on the other, celebrity suicides can lead to an increase in general suicides. This phenomenon is called the “copycat effect,” “suicide contagion” or specifically the “celebrity-suicide effect.”
Last year, research found that suicides in the U.S. rose about 10% in the months after Robin Williams died by suicide. Fink, Santaella-Tenorio and Keyes analyzed monthly suicide totals from 1999 to 2015, then calculated that 16,849 suicides would have been expected from August to December of 2014. In actuality there were 18,690 suicides reported in those months, or a 9.85% deviation from normal. The increase was seen in males and females, but was more pronounced for males and those between 30 and 44 years of age.
This study is the among the first to quantitatively show the effect of a celebrity suicide. There was widespread media coverage of Williams’ death and he was a beloved actor and comedian. It was known that he lived with depression and struggled with addiction. Additionally, Williams’ widow has since claimed his suicide was caused by a specific form of dementia, Lewy body dementia.
The “After Suicide Toolkit for Schools” put forth by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, notes the need for balance between memorialization of someone who died by suicide, and the risk of suicide contagion among students.
Netflix Needs To Do More Than Cut The Suicide Scene
Netflix’s controversial first season of 13 Reasons Why, released 2017, is back in the news this week after the online streaming service announced that, in advance of the release of the third season, they would be re-editing a scene to remove the graphic depiction of suicide. The show, and that scene specifically, caused extensive controversy when it was first released, with many suicide prevention activists and institutions expressing concern that the show may be dangerous to at-risk young people.
Although most agree that cutting the scene is a good decision, analysts have pointed out that it’s not simply that scene, but the entire plot and premise of the season, that make it so dangerous. Creating more stories that depict the realities of people struggling with suicidal thoughts, stories that depict seeking treatment in a positive way, is more important than removing or censoring stories that don’t. Minimizing negative cultural shifts isn’t as important as creating a positive cultural shift.
Statement from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention on Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” New Season One Edit
Netflix announced that after talking to mental health groups like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, it is removing the scene in which Hannah Baker takes her own life from Episode 13, Season 1 of “13 Reasons Why.” The nation’s largest suicide prevention organization, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) , made the following statement about this decision by Netflix.
“AFSP strongly supports Netflix’s decision to remove the scene of Hannah’s death in Season One. The portrayal of suicidal struggles and suicide is complex and research shows people respond to entertainment content in a variety of different ways. The same content that can lead to increased awareness and interest, and even empathy in many – can lead to worsening of mood, anxiety, or self-image for others who are vulnerable or struggling.
Family in Danville starts non-profit in honor of 13-year-old suicide victim
It’s only been a few months since 13-year-old Lainey Smith sadly died by suicide in Danville and her family is doing whatever they can to help spread awareness.
Lainey Smith is gone, but not forgotten.
“She’s the passer of the light, so hopefully we can keep her light shining,” said Lainey’s mother Stacey Smith. Her death sparked the creation of a non-profit called The Lainey Project.
Her family created it to help spread awareness.
“We kind of came up with doing something about the bullying in schools, raising awareness for anxiety, raising awareness for depression for people that dealt with that because it’s not just children, it’s everybody,” said Haley Smith, Lainey’s sister.
They want to help find ways to eliminate bullying.
After a six-year-old attempted suicide, I thought it wouldn’t happen again. I was wrong
A couple of years ago, I fought to save the life of a six-year-old child, to make sure she never attempted suicide again
This child is doing well but that was because I was able travel to her, in the heart of our continent, to one of our remotest regions. I was shocked that one so young would contemplate suicide. At the time I believed, or hoped, that I would never come across again a child so young and suicidal. Recently, I dedicated long-haul support to another suicidal six-year-old child, this time in one of our large cities.
Most recently, I have supported suicidal children, six, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 years of age. Without dedicated support it is my very certain belief that some of them would not be with us today.
There was one island community where a 13-year-old girl took her life. Her 11-year-old brother found her. The island has mainstream services, albeit small, but none visited the family, citing the need to give the grieving family “space”. More than three weeks later I travelled to the island and drove from the main community to an outstation near a smaller community and met the family. I was the first to do so.
The AI That Could Help Curb Youth Suicide
For many reasons, parents and teachers may fail to intervene when they spot LGBTQ teens in trouble. Can Google help?
In suicide-prevention literature, “gatekeepers” are community members who may be able to offer help when someone expresses suicidal thoughts. It’s a loose designation, but it generally includes teachers, parents, coaches, and older co-workers—people with some form of authority and ability to intervene when they see anything troubling.
Could it also include Google? When users search certain key phrases related to suicide methods, Google’s results prominently feature the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. But the system isn’t foolproof. Google can’t edit webpages, just search results, meaning internet users looking for information about how to kill themselves could easily find it through linked pages or on forums, never having used a search engine at all.
At the same time, on the 2019 internet, “run me over” is more likely to be a macabre expression of fandom than a sincere cry for help—a nuance a machine might not understand. Google’s artificial intelligence is also much less effective at detecting suicidal ideation when people search in languages other than English.
Teens are increasingly depressed, anxious, and suicidal. How can we help?
There are good research-backed solutions to prevent suicide among young people.
As you can see in this chart, after a steep drop in the late 1990s, the number of suicide deaths among young people (as measured in deaths per 100,000 people) began climbing around 2008 before reaching a new high in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Suicide rates lately have been increasing in all age groups in America, in almost every state. But the epidemic of youth suicide is particularly stymying, even for experts who study it.
There are plenty of hypotheses about what’s driving it floating around. They include the changing way teens interact with each other in digital spaces, economic stress and fallout from the 2008 recession, increasing social isolation, suicide contagion, and the fact that teens can more easily look up suicide methods online.
Two other enormous public health issues of our time are at play too. Children of opioid users appear to be more at risk for suicide. Same goes for young people who live in a house with a gun.
Between 16 and 18% of preadolescents have ideas of suicide
Depressive symptoms, anxiety and compulsive obsessive disorder are the main risk factors, according to a study by Universitat Rovira i Virgili researchers.
The researchers studied a group of 720 boys and 794 girls who studied in 13 schools in Reus. They were monitored during three developmental periods: 10 years old, 11 years old and 13 years old.
At the beginning of the study, the students answered a series of psychological tests that were used to detect which of them presented emotional symptoms related to depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). From their responses, two groups were created: one group at risk of emotional problems and a control group.
The disorders were diagnosed with standardised international criteria and the boys and girls were monitored to see how suicidal ideation developed throughout the research period.
EurekaAlert!, American Association for the Advancement of Science, July 11, 2019
Five Lessons for Communicators from an Influencer’s Suicide Note
Influencers are similar to nearly everyone else in this world; they have their good and bad days. We’ll admit, however, finding a balanced view in the media of influencer marketing is rare. Once considered a fad, influencer marketing is growing. It looks to be a permanent fixture in the marketer’s toolkit. And we’ll admit you’ve likely read articles on this site that imbue influencers with seemingly mythical powers to boost brand awareness, third-party authenticity and, sometimes, sales.
On the other hand, when influencers run amok, reputational damage to brands can result. Still, stories about the negative aspects of influencers seem hard to find. Articles urging companies to vet influencers before employing them seem in short supply. Ditto articles about contracts specifying exactly what you expect of an influencer.
Influencers are similar to nearly everyone else in this world; they have their good and bad days. We’ll admit, however, finding a balanced view in the media of influencer marketing is rare. Once considered a fad, influencer marketing is growing. It looks to be a permanent fixture in the marketer’s toolkit. And we’ll admit you’ve likely read articles on this site that imbue influencers with seemingly mythical powers to boost brand awareness, third-party authenticity and, sometimes, sales.
On the other hand, when influencers run amok, reputational damage to brands can result. Still, stories about the negative aspects of influencers seem hard to find. Articles urging companies to vet influencers before employing them seem in short supply. Ditto articles about contracts specifying exactly what you expect of an influencer.
The silent suicide epidemic
The 1999 massacre at Columbine High marked a new era of outrage towards gun violence upon young people. During the ensuing two decades 11 mass shootings have caused 200 senseless in-school deaths provoking nearly non-stop national mourning.
Meanwhile however, another gun epidemic has stealthily been taking 25 times as many young lives. Firearm suicides among 10- to 24-year-olds have become the second leading cause of death in that group. At last count, in 2017, the annual toll was a whopping 261. That’s five each week. Hardly a day goes by without private grieving by relatives and friends. But, for assorted reasons, few of those stories arouse the broader attention necessary to spark public outrage.
A major roadblock has been the NRA’s strident mantra “it’s not guns but people who kill.” That’s dead Wrong! It is most certainly guns and their availability which kill these distraught victims. Young people have other suicide options – suffocation by hanging, poisoning by drugs and wrist slashing. Each of these have far lower success rates than firearms and most young people have made several attempts with one or more of them before turning to a gun with its 85 percent success rate.
The Brattleboro Reformer, July 10, 2019
I Love You, Now Die: HBO’s Documentary on Texting Suicide
Now on HBO: I Love You, Now Die; a groundbreaking, true-crime, two-part documentary about an unprecedented manslaughter case — killing via text message. One part cyberbullying, one part Romeo and Juliet tragedy, the case was both shocking for the public and revolutionary for the Massachusetts courts.
Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr pulls back the curtain on the mind of Michelle Carter, the teenager accused of driving her boyfriend, 18-year-old Conrad Roy, to commit suicide solely through the phone. Carr told Inside Edition she hopes the two-part documentary will challenge viewers to decide for themselves the implications of the case — “Can you text someone into killing themselves, and can you be held liable? Yes, it’s immoral, yes it’s illegal, but there’s a lot more to the story.”
Mobile Help for Mental Health
A Connecticut program aims to meet kids in crisis where they physically are.
By the beginning of her eighth-grade year in 2013, Julia Tannenbaum had been struggling with an eating disorder, anxiety and depression for months. She was terrified to tell anyone.
Then, in the middle of a school day that fall, she hit a breaking point.
“Julia was just in a tremendous state of crisis, just emotionally out of control,” says her mother, Katherine Wilson. “We didn’t know what was going on with her, but she just couldn’t function.”
Alarmed by Tannenbaum’s behavior, the school dialed a familiar three-digit number. But it wasn’t an ambulance that showed up to the middle school – it was a clinician from Connecticut’s Mobile Crisis Intervention Services program, which deploys trained clinicians to mental health emergencies in homes, schools and communities. People can call 2-1-1 to access it.
The goal of the state-funded initiative – among a number of similar adolescent-focused mobile services around the country – is to get children appropriate care while keeping them out of emergency rooms, which are often poorly equipped to deal with mental health crises, especially among kids. Meanwhile, the rate of young people visiting the ER for mental health issues has surged.
U.S. News & World Report, July 10, 2019
Instagram Adds Features To Combat Cyberbullying As Studies Link Social Media To Youth Depression, Suicide
Instagram is offering two new anti-bullying features to its platform to combat cyberbullying and the devastating effects it can have on young people.
“We know bullying is a challenge many face, particularly young people,” Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said in a blog post when announcing the new features
The first anti-bullying feature Instagram added is one that helps prevent harmful comments before they even appear on the site. “In the last few days, we started rolling out a new feature powered by AI that notifies people when their comment may be considered offensive before it’s posted,” Mosseri said.
This feature allows a person to reevaluate a hurtful comment they might post with the hopes that they either change their comment or do not post it at all. Early testing of this feature shows it does cause some to reconsider and fewer hurtful comments are made, according to the blog post.
Stigma Often Keeps Guys from Seeking Help for Mental Health
Behavioral health is not a male issue or a female issue — it’s a human issue. Yet, the imbalance between the problems facing men and their willingness to seek help has raised alarm bells in the field over the years.
Suicide rates provide one of the starker contrasts, with men making up more than 75% of all suicide victims in the U.S., with one man killing himself every 20 minutes on average. Substance abuse — sometimes referred to as ‘slow-motion suicide’ — follows a similar track, ensnaring three men for every woman.
And, yet, men don’t want to bring up these issues, said Sara Kendall, vice president of Clinical Operations at MHA in Springfield.
“In our society, we have expressions like ‘man up.’ So many things in our culture are geared toward men being strong, and therefore, seeking any help — especially anything behavioral-health-related — been viewed as weakness,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s often difficult for men to feel comfortable talking to someone, so there’s a disconnect with how to help. We encounter that a lot.”
BusinessWest.com, July 9, 2019
What App-Based Therapy Is Really Like–Without an IRL connection, can treatment still work?
I was wide awake at one in the morning, scrolling through my contacts. My life felt impossible and bleak, like a movie I didn’t want to watch. I knew I needed to talk to someone, but I also felt cagey and vulnerable — even if I called someone and they actually picked up, I wasn’t sure I could explain what hurt.
I’d stopped therapy over a year ago, when my graduate program ended and I lost access to the university’s free counseling center. On days when my depression and anxiety felt unbearable, I’d research therapists and counseling centers in my area. I’d get overwhelmed by the intake evaluation, expense, transportation, and the possibility of a waitlist.
As a freelance writer, my work schedule is as unpredictable as my ACA insurance is terrible. After a few days of searching, I’d feel marginally better on my own and decide to forego help. I’d get along fine until nights like this, when everything caught up to me.
That night, in a last ditch effort to calm down, I searched the phrase “internet therapy” and found a promo code for $45 off a month of Talkspace, a mental health platform that connects clients like me with licensed therapists in their state (subscriptions cost between $260-$396, depending on the frequency of video therapy sessions).
Better ways to prevent suicide
Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, overall. For people ages 35 to 54, it ranks fourth, and for 10- to 34-year-olds, second.
Over the decades, suicide rates have climbed and fallen and climbed again. Between 1999 and 2017, the suicide rate increased 33%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (see March Monitor, “Worrying Trends in U.S. Suicide Rates”). Meanwhile, health-care providers still struggle to identify those at risk and to intervene. Yet suicide researchers say that situation is starting to change.
Within the field of psychology, experts are bringing their unique skills to bear on the problem of suicide. Basic scientists are exploring brain changes and risk factors associated with suicidal ideation and behavior. Applied scientists are seeking new ways to identify those at risk. Clinical researchers are testing new therapeutic interventions, and clinicians on the front lines are helping deliver those treatments to people who are struggling.
In the first of a series, we look at how psychologists in a variety of settings are building on one another’s work to address today’s most challenging issues. Here is how they are working together to advance the field of suicide prevention.
American Psychological Association, July 3, 2019