Ten Recommendations for Effective School-Based, Adolescent, Suicide Prevention Programs

Surgenor, Paul W. G.; Quinn, Paul C.; Hughes, Catherine

doi:10.1007/s12310-016-9189-9

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Depression education in schools is viewed as one key component involved in preventing youth suicide by decreasing stigma and engaging in early intervention (e.g. Clement et al, 2015;Petrova et al, 2015;Ruble et al, 2013;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016). By making social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in middle and high schools feature depression education, adolescents and their school community can learn both about depression and also engage in new help-seeking behaviors within their school context to increase student access to mental health services (Pisani et al, 2012;Kelly, Raines, Stone, & Frey, 2010;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clement et al, 2015;Petrova et al, 2015;Ruble et al, 2013;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016). By making social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in middle and high schools feature depression education, adolescents and their school community can learn both about depression and also engage in new help-seeking behaviors within their school context to increase student access to mental health services (Pisani et al, 2012;Kelly, Raines, Stone, & Frey, 2010;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016). As will be detailed in the following section, TDSHH incorporates many of the best practices in depression education and has extensively reviewed the literature to identify these key practices (Klimes-Dougan, Klingbeil, & Meller, 2013;Petrova et al, 2015;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016;Whitlock, Wyman, & Moore, 2014) in order to amplify student voice in the components of the intervention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teen Depression, Stories of Hope and Health: A Promising Universal School Climate Intervention for Middle School Youth

Kelly¹,

Kubert²,

Freed³

2020

International Journal of School Social Work

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This study describes the delivery of the Teen Depression: Stories of Health and Healing (TDSHH), a brief school-based depression awareness delivered for middle school students. The main objectives of the proposed evaluation were to examine the effects of TDSHH on middle school health students in the areas of knowledge about depression, willingness to seek help from adults and belief that adults can help. Two Chicago suburban middle schools agreed to be part of the TDSHH intervention study. In both schools, a pre/post-test wait-list control quasi-experimental design was used. Each student in the study (total N=223) completed a questionnaire that incorporated a depression knowledge scale created by the EL team and two additional standardized scales, the Help-Seeking Acceptability at School Scale (Wyman et al., 2008) and the Adult Help for Suicidal Youth Scale (Schmeelk-Cone et al., 2012). Data from the pilot indicates that TDSHH students showed statistically significant gains on understanding depression symptoms; identifying strategies students could use to improve their mental health; and increasing positive attitudes toward help seeking with adults at school.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teen Depression, Stories of Hope and Health: A Promising Universal School Climate Intervention for Middle School Youth

Kelly¹,

Kubert²,

Freed³

2020

International Journal of School Social Work

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“…Still, despite these serious outcomes from depression, many youth do not seek or receive the mental health treatment they need to treat their depression, increasing the chance that their depression might escalate into suicidal ideation (NIMH, 2017). Recent research has focused on using depression education as a prevention activity to increase the knowledge youth have about depression and suicide risk, to build their capacity to identify trusted adults in school and their community to help them and their peers, and to increase the help-seeking behavior of depressed youth (Balaguru, Sharma, & Waheed, 2013;Surgenor, Quinn, & Hughes, 2016). The present study extends that work using a one-session universal intervention (a school-based depression awareness curriculum) to assess whether youth's knowledge and skills can be impacted by such an intervention.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With depression being one of the primary mental health issues associated with suicide, and many youth reporting that stigma presents a major barrier to seeking help for depression, education in schools is viewed as a key component in preventing youth suicide (Petrova, Wyman, Schmeelk-Cone, Pisani, 2015;Pisani et al, 2012;Ruble, Leon, Gilley-Hensley, Hess, & Swartz, 2013;Surgenor et al, 2016;Swartz et al, 2010). By offering depression education as a primary prevention strategy for youth, and addressing depression through school programs, a larger segment of the youth population can be reached (Bevan et al, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evidence indicates that these interventions can be beneficial, though the evidence is still limited by a lack of rigorous randomized trials and quasi-experimental designs, though more rigorous trials have been conducted recently (Singer, Erbacher, & Rosen, 2018;Swartz et al, 2017). Current research indicates that the more youth and school communities can learn about depression, the more likely it is for the stigma around mental disorders to be reduced and, in turn, for students to seek out help from trusted adults (Joshi, Hartley, Kessler, & Barstead, 2015;Pisani et al, 2012;Surgenor et al, 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Depression Education As Primary Prevention

Kelly

Freed

Kubert

et al. 2019

ASW

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Major depression is a treatable and common mental health disorder for youth. Untreated depression is a major risk factor for youth who become suicidal and die by suicide. Recent focus in the school-based literature on creating universal mental health promotion programs have recognized the need for effective depression awareness education programs to assist youth in identifying symptoms of depression in themselves and their peers, and to encourage those youth to seek trusted adults for help. A quasi-experimental design (QED) was employed in two suburban Chicago high schools (n=652) to evaluate the intervention, Real Teenagers Talking About Adolescent Depression (RTTAAD), a video-based universal classroom discussion intervention created by clinical social workers, parents, and youth. The analysis showed that RTTAAD led to statistically significant changes in adolescent knowledge about depression and their stated willingness to seek help from trusted adults at 6-week follow-up compared to a control classroom condition. This study supports the notion that school social workers and other school mental health professionals need to allocate more time to primary prevention work to help build mental health awareness in their school communities and to help prevent depression and suicidal behavior.

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Preventing adolescent suicide: Recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, program developers, and researchers

Morris‐Perez,

Abenavoli,

Benzekri

et al. 2023

Social Policy Report

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For much of the past decade, suicide has been the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, and suicide rates among adolescents have been rising for the last 15 years. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents were common before COVID-19 and have become an increasing public health priority in the pandemic′s wake. In this Social Policy Report, we review evidence for suicide prevention strategies designed to address these rising trends. We make recommendations for federal, state, and local policymakers and practitioners; program developers in organizations that design and implement programming for youth; and academic and nonacademic researchers. Where research evidence is strong, we suggest legislation, funding, and implementation. In areas where gaps in evidence exist, we recommend program development and research. Our recommendations follow the order in a taxonomy adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, beginning with strategies that change the structural conditions in which adolescents live and concluding with strategies that support adolescents following a suicide (i.e., postvention). We find strong evidence for, and recommend policy implementation of: restricting access to lethal means; LGBTQ+ affirming policies; screening for suicide risk in medical settings; and community-wide investments via the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. In schools, we find benefits of, and recommend funding and implementation of, youth-focused programs. Even so, gaps exist: (a) research on economic policies for adolescents is nonexistent; (b) while mental health care access is a barrier, we do not know how to reduce youth suicide rates via changing care access; (c) data on crisis lines are encouraging but descriptive; and (d) school personnel training increases knowledge and confidence but not adolescent help-seeking. Finally, guidelines for response following a suicide loss focus on immediate support and are based on limited research; this is an area for program development and research.

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Ten Recommendations for Effective School-Based, Adolescent, Suicide Prevention Programs

Cited by 27 publications

References 43 publications

Teen Depression, Stories of Hope and Health: A Promising Universal School Climate Intervention for Middle School Youth

Teen Depression, Stories of Hope and Health: A Promising Universal School Climate Intervention for Middle School Youth

Depression Education As Primary Prevention

Preventing adolescent suicide: Recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, program developers, and researchers

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