When combining age, race and gender demographics, suicide ranks as the 11th leading cause of deaths in the US; homicide ranks as the 15th leading cause. In the US--if we look at suicides versus homicides in the overall population, more people kill themselves than kill others.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fatal Outcomes (Suicides):
• Average of 1 person every 15.8 minutes killed themselves
• Average of 1 old person every 1 hour and 39.2 minutes killed themselves
• Average of 1 young person every 2 hours and 5.5 minutes killed themselves. (If the 219 suicides below age 15 are included, 1
young person every 1 hour and 59.2 minutes)
• 11th ranking cause of death in U.S.— 3rd for young------------------------------------->> Cause
Number
Rate
• 3.8 male deaths by suicide for each female death by suicide
All Causes
34,887
82.2
• Suicide ranks 11th as a cause of death; Homicide ranks 15th_____________________
1-Accidents
16,229
38.2
Nonfatal Outcomes (Attempts) (figures are estimates; no official U.S. national data compiled):
2-Homicide
5,717
13.5
• 832,500 annual attempts in U.S. (using 25:1 ratio) __ 3-Suicide 4,189
9.9
• Translates to one attempt every 38 seconds (based on 832,500 attempts)
10-14 yrs
216
1.1
• 25 attempts for every death by suicide for nation; 100-200:1 for young; 4:1 for elderly
15-19 yrs
1,555
7.3
• 3 female attempts for each male attempt
20-24 yrs
2,634
12.6
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Youth/teen suicide fact sheet
Every 2 hours, a person under the age of 25 in the US completes suicide. Suicide is often seen as the"silent killer". Many family members do not speak out about this epidemic due to fear, shame or guilt. Yet between 1981 and 2006, the rate of 10-14 year old children completing suicide increased by 50%. It is estimated that 1 in 9.5% of college students have had a serious suicide plan at one point in their college career.
http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=232&name= DLFE-161.pdf
http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=232&name= DLFE-161.pdf
College years, depression and suicide.
Know the potential warning signs for a teen or college student with a mental illness who may be thinking about suicide.
http://www.ulifeline.org/main/Home.html
http://www.ulifeline.org/main/page/58/WarningSigns
http://www.ulifeline.org/main/Home.html
http://www.ulifeline.org/main/page/58/WarningSigns
24 hour hotline for LGBTQ teens in crisis
The Trevor Project: 866-4-U-TREVORThe Trevor Project operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. The Trevor Helpline is available as a resource to parents, family members and friends of young people as well. Visit www.TheTrevorProject.org for more information and resources for young people, including “Dear Trevor,” an online Q&A forum for non-time sensitive questions
http://www.facebook.com/TheTrevorProject
http://www.facebook.com/TheTrevorProject
Teenage mental illness and suicide...
"a cry for help"---2 different high schools in 2 different settings each approach a string of student suicides from different perspectives.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cryforhelp/episodes/the-film/watch-the-documentary/1/
Behind the acts of violence and rage of both the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings is a larger issue of mental illness in teens that is rarely addressed. For instance:
The rate of teenage suicide has tripled over the last 60 years –28 teenagers a week now die by suicide.¹
Depression and anxiety in adolescents often go unrecognized or untreated for years, and the results can be fatal – over 90 percent of adolescents who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental illness at the time of their death. ²
While school shootings are rare, signs of mental illness in the perpetrators of these crimes are not. School shooters often have a history of suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts or depression³ – which makes identifying those conditions through mental health screening critically important.
Cry for Help takes an intimate look at the efforts of two high schools to identify adolescents at risk. Hamilton High School in Ohio and Clarkstown North High School in New York have both been affected by teen suicide and have launched powerful new programs to prevent future tragedies.
Following the unrelated suicides of four students that shook the Hamilton community, school officials are taking a direct approach with “Character Day” – a raw, emotional, and honest program designed to motivate students to open up and ask for help. In Clarkstown, school officials are taking advantage of the time their students spend on the Internet by creating an online community – one where teens can anonymously air their problems and seek support from their peers and professionals.
Cry for Help also examines the often difficult transition from high school to college through a first-person account of a young woman who has battled mental illness. Stacy Hollingsworth, a straight-A student and gifted musician, was by all appearances a well-adjusted and accomplished young person. When Stacy phoned home from a campus psychiatric hospital during her freshman year at college, it was then that her parents realized things were not as perfect as they seemed. She had been hiding depression, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of paralyzing hopelessness for years. Stacy and her parents chronicle the painstaking journey to put her life back together, and how she founded her college’s first on-campus chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Additionally, Cry for Help looks at the efforts by some parents to tackle behavior and communication issues during their children’s earliest years – before depression, violence, anger or suicidal impulses take over.
Interviewees include Dr. Chris Lucas, professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University; Dr. Frank Robertz, co-founder of Institute for Violence Prevention and Applied Criminology in Berlin, Germany; and Dr. Nolan Zane, Director of the Asian American Center on Disparities Research.
THIRTEEN’s Cry for Help is funded by the Estate of Marya Sielska; Members of THIRTEEN; the Irene Ritter Foundation; Judy Collins; the Leon Lowenstein Foundation; Donna and Phil Satow; the Marion E. Kenworthy-Sarah H. Swift Foundation.
Cry for Help is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG. Mary Murphy is producer and Scott Davis is senior producer. Edie Magnus is reporter and executive producer. Neal Shapiro and Stephen Segaller are executives-in-charge.
¹ Campus Mental Service, Recommendations for Change. Vastag et al, 2001.
² Nejm 2006. Study from Velez et al, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 1988.
³ Secret Service Threat Assessment Study for the U.S. Justice Dept.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cryforhelp/episodes/the-film/watch-the-documentary/1/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cryforhelp/episodes/the-film/watch-the-documentary/1/
Behind the acts of violence and rage of both the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings is a larger issue of mental illness in teens that is rarely addressed. For instance:
The rate of teenage suicide has tripled over the last 60 years –28 teenagers a week now die by suicide.¹
Depression and anxiety in adolescents often go unrecognized or untreated for years, and the results can be fatal – over 90 percent of adolescents who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental illness at the time of their death. ²
While school shootings are rare, signs of mental illness in the perpetrators of these crimes are not. School shooters often have a history of suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts or depression³ – which makes identifying those conditions through mental health screening critically important.
Cry for Help takes an intimate look at the efforts of two high schools to identify adolescents at risk. Hamilton High School in Ohio and Clarkstown North High School in New York have both been affected by teen suicide and have launched powerful new programs to prevent future tragedies.
Following the unrelated suicides of four students that shook the Hamilton community, school officials are taking a direct approach with “Character Day” – a raw, emotional, and honest program designed to motivate students to open up and ask for help. In Clarkstown, school officials are taking advantage of the time their students spend on the Internet by creating an online community – one where teens can anonymously air their problems and seek support from their peers and professionals.
Cry for Help also examines the often difficult transition from high school to college through a first-person account of a young woman who has battled mental illness. Stacy Hollingsworth, a straight-A student and gifted musician, was by all appearances a well-adjusted and accomplished young person. When Stacy phoned home from a campus psychiatric hospital during her freshman year at college, it was then that her parents realized things were not as perfect as they seemed. She had been hiding depression, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of paralyzing hopelessness for years. Stacy and her parents chronicle the painstaking journey to put her life back together, and how she founded her college’s first on-campus chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Additionally, Cry for Help looks at the efforts by some parents to tackle behavior and communication issues during their children’s earliest years – before depression, violence, anger or suicidal impulses take over.
Interviewees include Dr. Chris Lucas, professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University; Dr. Frank Robertz, co-founder of Institute for Violence Prevention and Applied Criminology in Berlin, Germany; and Dr. Nolan Zane, Director of the Asian American Center on Disparities Research.
THIRTEEN’s Cry for Help is funded by the Estate of Marya Sielska; Members of THIRTEEN; the Irene Ritter Foundation; Judy Collins; the Leon Lowenstein Foundation; Donna and Phil Satow; the Marion E. Kenworthy-Sarah H. Swift Foundation.
Cry for Help is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG. Mary Murphy is producer and Scott Davis is senior producer. Edie Magnus is reporter and executive producer. Neal Shapiro and Stephen Segaller are executives-in-charge.
¹ Campus Mental Service, Recommendations for Change. Vastag et al, 2001.
² Nejm 2006. Study from Velez et al, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 1988.
³ Secret Service Threat Assessment Study for the U.S. Justice Dept.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cryforhelp/episodes/the-film/watch-the-documentary/1/
Friday, April 23, 2010
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