Show FigureUtah Youth Suicides August 1996-May 1999 Age of Suicide Completers o o Percent of Suicides 151 13 14 15 16 18 17 19 20 21 Age Implications and Recommendations The Suicide Task Force recommends shifting suicide prevention efforts away from education of the general population and towards screening and identifying youth at risk for suicide see Figure The Utah Youth Suicide study found that nearly all youth who completed suicide could either be found in school or Juvenile Justice To-date national suicide prevention programs have not been effective but no suicide prevention efforts have been targeted to the Juvenile Justice population addition previous school prevention programs have not been directed at youth with suicide risk factors Screening should begin with individuals who have risk factors outlined in this paper The initial screening should be broad covering distress or dysfunction commonly found with psychiatric disorders Those positive on the initial broad screening could then receive additional more specific screening or referral forclinical assessment Example youth at high risk for suicide male Caucasian Seventeen-year-old struggling with depression experimenting with drugs and acting out behaviorally This 17-year-old has multiple minor offenses in the Juvenile Justice system He has refused psychiatric treatment and is not taking He also has psychotropic medication access to firearms While this individual represents the majority of youth suicide completers there issubgroup of youth suicide completers 15 who have high academic achievement and cannot be located in Juvenile Justice Youth suicide representssmall portion of all youth suffering from under-diagnosed and untreated mental illness and substance abuse In an effort to identify youth at risk for suicide large numbers of youth with psychiatric morbidity will also be identified and directed towards treatment This effort may be of equal importance to decreasing youth mortality rates Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |