Suicide Prevention Tips

“Walk into any American high school classroom and the odds are that two of the young people prior to you will have attempted suicide over the past 12 months.” This is according to Jack Heath, president of the Inspire USA Foundation.

It is extremely unsettling to take into account that much more than 24,000 suicide attempts are produced on college and university campuses about the United States, annually.  These alarming figures are supplied by the Journal of the American Medical Association.  

In fact, according to US government statistics, suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst 25- to 34-year-olds. It is also the third leading cause of death among American 15- to 24-year-olds.

The authorities attribute the causation factors for college age suicides as stress of school, finances, and relationships.  These, amongst others, are definitely enough to get most college students feeling depressed about life at a time that already brings with it the several pressures of adult expectations as nicely as academic and social challenge.

Here’s the thing… most college students contemplating committing suicide are not most likely to contain their line of thinking in their Facebook status updates.  Among those that have, lives have been saved by on-line “pals,” who recognized what was happening and quickly intervened to avert horrible tragedies from taking spot.

Case in point.  Resulting from her fast response, actress Demi Moore helped save the life of 1 of 1 of her Twitter followers who was contemplating suicide.  By keeping her engaged with Tweets, Moore enticed sufficient clues for other Tweeps to figure out where this woman lived.  Police were dispatched to her residence, just in the nick of time.

In yet another case that snagged international newswires, a 16 year old British youth sent a suicide message to a young girl in Maryland. This eventually led to White House and British Embassy involvement via calls from the Maryland state police.  Both governments assigned special agents to support track down the suicidal young man prior to he took his own life.  As a result, a life was saved, due to the Social Media.

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Virtual communities, especially those geared to suicide prevention, can bring together groups of failed attempters of suicide their loved ones and buddies, as nicely as field specialists, locally or from around the planet.  Everyone’s contribution to the overall conversation and the valuable of their input allows for the sharing of critical info and the creation of supportive relationships.

When folks feel connected to and supported by other people and encouraged to be who they genuinely are – as they do in virtual communities – they construct a safety net around them that could help protect them when they are feeling despair.

Luckily, not all of the virtual communities forming to deal with suicide prevention are coming about by happenstance.  Recognizing the value of the on-line globe in helping to present a conduit for expressing psychological and emotional issues, expert associations and academic institutions are introducing their own communities and resources into the greater mix.

According to the information provided on its house page, “ReachOut.com is the flagship program of Inspire USA Foundation, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.  Through its virtual community, ReachOut integrates youth-generated, professional-reviewed data and genuine-life stories with opportunities to connect with other people in a supportive, secure environment.

Individuals across the Web are connecting with SAMHSA’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-Speak), thanks to Lifeline’s presence on social media sites.

“By listening to teens directly, we discovered an opportunity to use online and digital media to assist teens cope with personal and mental health problems,” stated SAMHSA’s Mark Weber, Job Lead for the Agency’s Suicide Prevention Function Group and Associate Administrator for Communications. “Our key message to teens is ‘Relief is closer than you feel.’ “

On the academic side, my own alma mater  - Syracuse University –  is making use of a grant from the SAMSHA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to generate “gatekeeper training” for its residence life staff and well being services staff on how to stop suicide and perform successful crisis intervention.  Syracuse’s “Campus Connect” program has served as a model for other colleges and universities. In addition, the school’s free of charge “Mindfulness Based Pressure Reduction” series has been hailed by medical journals for offering emotional coping skills to deal far more effectively with pressure, according to the school.  A social marketing and advertising campaign, at SU, has focused on altering the stigma of mental wellness issues and increasing the awareness of its counseling center.

Syracuse joins other colleges and universities such as Penn State and Michigan in forming these online suicide prevention initiatives.

“Student counseling centers’ hold perceptions that a lot more highly troubled students are coming in prompting the centers to introduce fresh suicide-prevention tactics,” according to the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology publication.  The APA reports efforts that consist of Internet and social media initiatives geared toward students creating it less complicated for them to be open to assist by altering term counseling services to consulting at some U.S. post secondary institutions.

While current studies by psychologists have warned that Social Media, itself, can contribute to social disorders and mental illness, it is refreshing to also hear about the many ways Social Media is impacting the field of psychology in a positive way and saving lives by way of its role in suicide prevention.