Schools and Suicide – The Importance of the Attachment Bond

Abstract

A piece of the puzzle seems to be missing. The continued push by mental health practitioners and academics against the rising rates of suicide across the globe, through research and interventions in clinics and schools, has resulted in minimal success. Despite the variance in statistics worldwide, most studies seem to point to one conclusion: That is, suicide is one of the three leading causes of death in young people and instead of decreasing, the rates are rising. According to Wasserman et al. (2015), in 2009, suicide accounted for 7.3% of all deaths in the age group 15-19 years, after road traffic accidents (11.6%), and "suicide attempts and severe suicidal ideation have potentially serious consequences, including substantial psychological effects, increased risk of subsequent suicide attempt, and death" (p. 1536). Wasserman et al. (2015) also stated that:Research lends support to the theory that the vast proportion of psychopathological changes has its onset in childhood and ad-olescence…. Consequently, the prevention of suicidal behavior should be a national health priority, with the development of new, evidence-based, suicide preventive interventions.