A task force told Utah legislators today how the state can lower its high teen suicide rate.
The study is finding that mental health problems are a common factor among teens who commit suicide and even try to commit suicide.
Dr. Doug Gray: "The attempters sometimes have a psychiatric diagnosis and often are under stress. But the completers almost always have a psychiatric diagnoses."
But first, the community needs to find the kids who need help.
The study says a campaign to reduce the stigma of mental health problems and make treatment more affordable would be a good start.
They say a lot still needs to be done.
Teen suicide rates have tripled in 30 years. Bruce Lindsay begins a series of reports
on this waste of people who are "Too Young To Die."
Kids in high school are
full of promise, vitality
and life ahead of them.
It makes you wonder why
any teenager would choose to die.
But consider this:
In Utah, the leading
cause of death for boys 15 to 19 years old, is suicide.
JoAnn Neilson: "I was one of the parents who thought it couldn't happen to me. And when it did, there was so much guilt, you know, thinking 'What could I have done? What could I have done differently?'"
JoAnn Neilson crusades against teen suicide as the state PTA's Health Commissioner, after suffering the loss of a son.
Dr. William McMahon chairs the committee which prepared the state's teen suicide prevention plan. He says, "I think the most important message about teen suicide is that it is occuring here. And that it's a difficult problem that our community needs to address."
"As soon as you mention suicide, people don't want to talk about it. Because it doesn't happen to them, or it doesn't happen..."
But teen suicide DOES happen. Even to Utah families like yours.
If you want numbers, consider these:
-
A survey conducted by the state revealed that one out of four of our high school children said they had "seriously considered" attempting suicide in the previous year.
- One in seven had made a plan for how they would do it.
- And one in 12 had actually tried!
The worst, of course, is that between 40 and 50 Utah teens complete the act every year.
A few other facts:
Suicide in Utah runs about 30% higher than the national average.
But Utah is in line with neighboring states which consistently make the top ten. No one has a convincing explanation why.
Keith Kikel: "Danny was a leader in his church when this first started. He was an honors student, an A student."
Keith Kikel knows how teen suicide affects all economic, ethnic, and religious groups. He knows from sad experience how it affects families.
"It really scars not only parents and siblings, but probably generations after."
"It's a horrible event that we're all quite concerned about."
That concern has prompted the state health department to undertake perhaps the nation's most extensive study of teen suicide.
The project, launched in 1996, has conducted "psychological autopsies" of as many teen suicide victims as possible.
Calvert Cazier of the Utah Health Department explains, "What we are looking at, what we think we need to do is identify the kids at high risk."
That study won't be completed until next year. But researchers feel sure about some of the most important risk factors, already.
They come with warning signs.
And intervention is available.
Thursday,
we'll tell you how to recognize warning signs of teenage
suicide, and how to get help for a teen who is surely
Too Young To Die.
