Cheryl King tagged posts

Which Strategies to Prevent Youth Suicide Should Be Priorities?

KingWith today’s post, Dr. King closes out CFYM’s series on youth suicide prevention. We acknowledge the collaboration of National Network of Depression Centers and Active Minds with Care for Your Mind and we appreciate their contributions to our community.

Cheryl King, PhD
Institute for Human Adjustment, University of Michigan

While evidence-based education, prevention, and treatment intervention strategies exist to address the problems underlying youth suicide, significant barriers prevent young people from receiving the kinds of help that can make a difference. Public policy can impact the availability of services, but there’s debate on how to invest resources.

No Single “Right” Approach
When it comes to public policy and funding to address youth suicide prevention, there’s no perfect evidence to indicate a single best or preferred strategy. I personally look at it as a large magnet and, with every strategy, we “pick up” more of those who are at risk.

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Strategies For Addressing Youth Suicide—And The Barriers to Effective Treatment

King

Cheryl King, PhD
Institute for Human Adjustment, University of Michigan
National Network of Depression Centers

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among 15-to-24-year olds, and youth suicide remains a challenging public health problem that is strongly linked with psychiatric disorders and other mental health issues.

Research shows that there are effective education, prevention, and treatment intervention strategies to address this problem. However, there are also barriers that prevent young people from receiving the kind of help that can make a difference.

Some Evidence for Effective Approaches
While it’s a challenge to gather evidence for strategies that address suicide prevention, research indicates that certain approaches lead to increased awareness of risk factors, more referrals to treatment for those at risk, and reduced suicidal thoughts. In some instances, the studies have been large enough to look at reduction in suicide attempts. But we can’t say we have data on treatments and interventions that are actually shown to reduce suicides in youth.

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