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Teen Suicide in Utah
The Deseret News in Salt Lake City is running Teen Suicide: Utah’s Grim Reality, a week-long series on the incidence of teen suicide in the state. Youth suicide has been declared an epidemic by the Utah Department of Health. Utah leads the nation in suicides among ages 15 to 24 and the 11th highest suicide rate in the nation over all age groups – 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people. Follow the links below to read the series thus far: April 23, 2006 – Deadly taboo: Youth suicide an epidemic that many in Utah prefer to ignore.
Two more stories to follow on Thursday and Friday. In print the series is 40 pages so far, will probably be about 50 pages altogether. If you’d like to save wear and tear on your printer and your ink cartridges, send me an email with your USPO address and I’ll send you a hard copy of the complete series. ++++++++++ The Trevor Project The Trevor Project is a nonprofit California organization that operates the nation’s only 24-hour suicide prevention helpline especially geared towards gay and questioning youth. It also provides other services, including guidance and resource for teens, teachers, parents and educators.
Gay teens are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, believed to be partly due to their increased risk of depression and anxiety triggered by the widespread harassment and bullying of gay teens.
++++++++++ The Choking Game is Back
A teenager in Virginia died of accidental asphyxiation in March after wrapping a terry-cloth sash around his neck in a variation of the choking game known as autoerotic asphyxiation, which involves masturbation while cutting off the air supply to the brain. Experts estimate that 250 to 1,000 young people die in the US each year from some variant of the choking game. Many are reported as suicides. The game is also known as blackout, gasper, space monkey and suffocation roulette. Here are two web sites with more information:
http://www.deadlygameschildrenplay.com
http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com ++++++++++Teen Mental Health: Depression and Suicide Teen Depression Watch Draws Mixed Reviews
This NPR interview looks at Teen Screen, a suicide screen used by schools in 42 states to detect suicidal tendencies in middle school students and the opposition it is experiencing in some locales. Improving Mental Health Care in Teen Justice System NPR interview examines juvenile mental health courts, particularly the juvenile mental health court in San Jose, Calif. Kids Not So Suicidal After All In this opinion piece that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in December, Mike Males suggests that diversity and societal evolution are forging more resilient, less self-destructive young people. Males says “Today’s youth are the third generation exposed to widespread hard-drug availability, mass-media influences, fast-paced lives and chaotic families. Far from being passive victims, teens have learned from the manifest woes of older generations and appear to be developing ways to handle modern pressures.” Another, interesting, way of looking at the issue of teens, drugs and suicide. ++++++++++ Teen Prostitution Teens, Mental Health, and Suicide
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has been running a week-long series on the development of the teen-age brain, mental health issues, depression and suicide. Recent research indicates that the brain of a teenager is not only awash in a tide of hormones, but also is in the middle of a tumultuous overhaul. This transition is so significant that it may unlock the mysteries of mental illness, suicide, depression, and mental disorders. The series is in its 4th day today and may run throughout the rest of the week. If you choose to download the entire series you’ll be printing about 50 pages. If you would prefer, I can send you a hard copy of the complete series (no charge) if you’ll email me your Post Office mailing address. This is a very good series of articles ++++++++++. Screening for Teen SuicideDavid Shaffer, a psychiatrist disturbed by an increase in teen suicide, devised a 10 minute questionnaire for 9th and 10th graders to inquire about depression, substance abuse and any previous suicide attempts and made it available to schools at no charge. TeenScreen is given to students with their parents’ consent. With only word-of-mouth marketing it has spread to 461 sites in 43 states. Despite this success, TeenScreen also has raised questions about the ability of the country’s mental health system to handle more people and has encountered conservative political opposition. ++++++++++ Feds Struggle with Problem of Indian Suicides The suicide rates for American Indians and Alaskan Natives ages 15 to 24 are three times the nation’s average, according to U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona. It is estimated that there are 13 nonfatal attempts for every fatality. This article from the Casper Star Tribune examines these statistics and talks to members of tribes in the High Plains area of the country about mental health services, access to those services, and the association of suicide with alcohol. ++++++++++Native Youth Killing Themselves The Cheyenne River reservation in South Dakota experienced a staggering 17 youth suicides in 2002-03, with an average of five attempts per week. In this community everyone knows at least one of the teenagers who tried – or succeeded – in taking their own lives. Some of the suicides were young men who had made a suicide pact with one another. They drew numbers, and decided to hang themselves in that order. Their families found them, often hanging in their homes, as their number came up. According to recent studies American-Indian teens are more than twice as likely as other teens to kill themselves. Native teens and young adults, 15 to 24 years old, are three times as likely to kill themselves. A study published in 2004 in Trends in Indian Health said that suicide has become a community problem as “suicide clusters” occur.
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