TEEN SUICIDE

Teen Suicide

Teen Suicide

Nature

One goal of the grant project described here was the development of an educational workshop for children on depression and suicide, and on help-seeking strategies in an emotional crisis. (Hartmann, 2007, 943-954)

Extent

Divided into 10 small groups, they brainstormed about help-seeking difficulties, specifically, impediments to obtaining mental health care services and accessing child and youth crisis services.

Scope of the problem

The scope of problem for developing an educational workshop emerged from information gathered in previous program outreach activities.

Natural life history of the disease/condition

Pre-pathogenesis period

Local, national, and international trends in teen suicide led the authors to suggest a proactive, preventive educational approach that includes both primary and secondary prevention modalities, made directly available to teens, parents, and youth professionals. Additionally, the program developed new partnerships between mental health agencies and schools through workshops and workshop presenter training.

The workshop described in this article informs and educates children, adults working with children, and parents about child and child depression and suicide. (Hartmann, 2007, 943-954) The workshop is part of a preventive approach to two serious problems that affect a limited but growing segment of the child population. In this case, it fits well within the mission of the Youth Emergency Services (YES) consortium, which includes increasing the community's awareness of serious child and youth mental health problems.

2. Pathogenesis period: pre-symptomatic to overt disease

Comprehensive, collaborative community programs offering child and youth emergency mental health services are still relatively new, and much remains to be learned about the population in need of these services. The initial experience of Youth Emergency Services was one of coming to terms with the severity and complexity of the needs presented by families seeking services. Many children, however, do not obtain the services they need because the services are not known to them or to their families, or are not perceived to be readily accessible. (Hartmann, 2007, 943-954)

Since 1991, the YES consortium has offered immediate access and a comprehensive array of emergency services to children and children under 18 years of age who have serious emotional problems and who reside in Monroe County in upstate New York.

Families and youths are assisted in a team-based program involving the collaboration of six community agencies, including four hospital-based community mental health centers in Rochester, New York: Crestwood Children's Center, Park Ridge Mental Health Center, Rochester Mental Health Center, and The Genesee Hospital Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Center. Hillside Children's Center and the Strong Memorial Hospital Division of Child and Child Psychiatry are also part of the consortium. Coordinated outpatient, respite, mobile, and home-based services are available to families as a means of maintaining children in their homes.

Populations at risk

Within this framework, the workshop was intended to document how a diverse child population would seek help in a crisis, while at the same time disseminating information about crisis services available to that population in Monroe County.

B.  Determinants influencing condition

1. Primary data (essential agent) - depression

  Suicide has been defined as "any death that is the direct or indirect result of a positive ...