Children's Safety Network

CSN Discuss Bulletin

Adolescent Suicide Prevention

May 2004

This bulletin comes to you from the Children's Safety Network through the CSNDISCUSS list, an electronic forum for the discussion of child and adolescent injury and violence prevention and related issues.

A Question from CSN

News and developments

Three Suicide Prevention Resources from Education Development Center
The Evidence-Based Practices Project (EBPP) for Suicide Prevention

Articles and Reports

Report: Idaho 's Suicide Prevention Plan
Report: Illinois Suicide Prevention Website
Report: The Science of Public Health Messages for Suicide Prevention: A Workshop Summary
Article: Completed suicides among Quebec adolescents involved with juvenile justice and child welfare services
Article: The themes expressed in suicide calls to a telephone help line
Article: An outcome evaluation of the SOS Suicide Prevention Program
Article: Risk and resiliency factors influencing suicidality among urban African American and Latino youth

AVAILABILITY

Copies of many items can be delivered to state Maternal and Child Health and state public health staff upon request. Articles available by e-mail are so indicated. Some other articles can be faxed or mailed. To request an article or other publication, e-mail jhudson@edc.org with the item name, delivery preference (e-mail, fax number, or mailing address). This service is restricted to state Maternal and Child Health and state public health staff. Restricted time and resources forbids us from delivering articles to others.

URLs of publications that can be downloaded from the web are included in the bibliographic information.

A Question from CSN

Many states have developed comprehensive plans for suicide prevention. A recent informal survey found that many state legislatures provide seed money to support state suicide assessments, conferences, or a state position for suicide prevention. However, finding funding for ongoing implementation of a state suicide prevention plan can be challenging. Have you found an effective approach to raising funds for implementation of state suicide prevention plans? If so, we would like to hear about both the approach and the agencies and organizations that funded these efforts. Responses will be summarized and posted to the CSN website.

Please respond to Chris Hanna at hanna.chris@mcrf.mfldclin.edu.

News and developments

Three Suicide Prevention Resources from Education Development Center

Education Development Center (EDC) is home to three important suicide prevention resources.

Children's Safety Network (CSN) will assist state health departments in with suicide prevention efforts that contribute towards meeting the core performance measure to reduce adolescent suicide. CSN can provide assistance in strategic planning, program implementation, and evaluation.

CSN National Injury & Violence Prevention Resource Center
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street , Newton , MA 02458-1060
617-618-2722
http://www.childrenssafetynetwork.org/

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) provides support, training, and materials to help state prevention networks advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. SPRC sponsors regional conferences and draws upon the expertise and resources of partner organizations to offer prevention support and training.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street , Newton , MA 02458-1060
877-438-7772
http://www.sprc.org

National Center for Suicide Prevention Training (NCSPT) provides web-based workshops to help public officials, service providers, and community-based coalitions develop effective suicide prevention programs and policies. Three workshops are currently available: Locating, Understanding, and Presenting Youth Suicide Data; Planning and Evaluation for Youth Suicide Prevention; and Suicide Prevention: An Introduction To Gatekeeping. These web-based workshops are available at http://www.ncspt.org/workshops/default.asp
The Evidence-Based Practices Project (EBPP) for Suicide Prevention

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention are currently involved in the Evidence-Based Practices Project (EBPP) for suicide prevention. EBPP will review suicide prevention programs, practices, and activities and create an online registry of evidence-based suicide prevention practices. Program reviews will be conducted by experts in the field of suicide prevention using criteria adapted from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Registry of Effective Prevention Programs (NREPP). Descriptions of programs found to be promising, effective, or model will be posted in a searchable registry on the SPRC web site at http://www.sprc.org.

EBPP is accepting published or unpublished suicide prevention program evaluations for review. All programs, practices, or activities that target suicide rates, suicide behavior, or risk and protective factors for suicide, are eligible for submission. Additional information concerning EBPP can be found on the SPRC web site. Howard Sudak, EBPP Scientific Coordinator and Philip Rodgers, EBPP Evaluation Specialist can be reached by telephone at 215-829-7349 or contacted by e-mail at hsudak@afsp.org or prodgers@afsp.org, respectively.

Articles and Reports

Idaho 's State Suicide Prevention Plan
Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, Division of Health. (2004)

Idaho 's Suicide Prevention Plan is a guide for agencies, organizations, communities and individuals at state, regional, and local levels to follow when developing action plans. The plan, which focuses on increasing protective factors against suicide and reducing risks for suicide, is based on Idaho 's needs and current science on suicide prevention. Idaho 's Suicide Prevention Plan can be found online at http://www2.state.id.us/dhw/health/suicide_plan.pdf
Illinois ' State Suicide Prevention Website
Illinois Suicide Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Injury and Tobacco Use Prevention. (2004)

The newly revised website offers a comprehensive listing of suicide prevention activities in the state of Illinois . Information is available about an upcoming statewide suicide prevention conference in Springfield in September. A full suicide prevention report that provides processes and recommendations of the Illinois State Strategic Suicide Prevention Planning Committee for a comprehensive, complex and ambitious response to suicide in Illinois will be available on the website on December 2004. http://www.ilsp.net/
The Science of Public Health Messages for Suicide Prevention: A Workshop Summary
National Institute of Mental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2004).

On October 22-23, 2003 , the National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sponsored a workshop entitled, The Science of Public Messages for Suicide Prevention. The meeting brought together suicide prevention advocates, persons with evaluation experience, and experts in suicide contagion, public health message development, mental health literacy, decision-making, stigma, and marketing to discuss the complex issues underlying effective suicide prevention public messaging campaigns. Workshop participants discussed three key areas that could help inform future suicide prevention programs: characteristics of good campaign evaluation approaches; campaign outcomes based on target audiences and timing; and safety and ethical issues of public messaging campaigns. They also identified specific technical assistance needs of campaign developers and compiled an eight-point research agenda that could help in the development of an evidence-based roadmap for suicide prevention campaigns.

A summary of this workshop and the recommendations issued by the participants can be found online at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/SuicideResearch/suicprevmsgwkshop2p3-26.pdf
Farand L, Chagnon F, Renaud J, Rivard M.
Completed suicides among Quebec adolescents involved with juvenile justice and child welfare services.
Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior. 2004 Spring;34(1):24-35.

This study found that, in the province of Quebec, adolescents involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems committed at least one-third of all completed suicides in their age group. Their risk of suicide, standardized for age and sex, was five times that of the general adolescent population. Forty percent of those suicides occurred when the young people were actively involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Availability: e-mail or hard copy only
Barber JG, Blackman EK, Talbot C, Saebel J.
The themes expressed in suicide calls to a telephone help line.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2004 Feb;39(2):121-5.

This study found that telephone help lines received calls from almost equal numbers of males and females. Among first-time callers, men under 35 years of age were 75 percent more likely to refer to relationships breaking down as were women of the same age. Men were also twice as likely to refer to material hardship as women. Women were four times more likely to refer to being the victim of abuse and 60 percent more likely to refer to interpersonal and family problems. The vast majority of callers expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of their intimate relationships, which suggests that the promotion of intimacy and coping strategies for relationship breakdown are central to the primary prevention of suicide.

Availability: e-mail or hard copy
Aseltine, RH, Jr., DeMartino, R.
An outcome evaluation of the SOS Suicide Prevention Program.
American Journal of Public Health. 2004 Mar;94(3):446-51.

This study examined the effectiveness of the Signs of Suicide (SOS) prevention program. Significantly lower rates of suicide attempts and greater knowledge and more adaptive attitudes about depression and suicide were observed among students in the intervention group than in a control group. SOS is the first school-based suicide prevention program to demonstrate significant reductions in self-reported suicide attempts.

Availability: e-mail or hard copy
O'Donnell L, O'Donnell C, Wardlaw D, Stueve A.
Risk and resiliency factors influencing suicidality among urban African American and Latino youth.
American Journal of Community Psychology. 2004 Mar;33(1-2):37-49.

This study examined the prevalence and predictors of suicidality among 879 urban adolescents. All youth resided in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Sixty-nine percent were African American, 16 percent Latino, and 15 percent mixed or other ethnicity. In the past year, 15 percent had seriously considered suicide; 13 percent had made a suicide plan, 11 percent had attempted suicide at least once, and 4 percent had attempted suicide on more than one occasion. Risk factors significantly related to suicidal ideation were found to be being female, having basic needs unmet, engaging in same-gender sex, and depression. Resiliency factors included family closeness and, marginally, religiosity.

Availability: e-mail or hard copy