Youth Suicide Prevention: How to Develop and Sustain a Succesful Program

Suicide has become the second leading cause of death among children greater than 10 years of age, and continues to remain a leading cause of death throughout most of our lifetime. Suicide rates in youth have only continued to climb over the last decade, therefore prevention measures are crucial. Injury Prevention Centers can be an integral part of suicide prevention efforts in their communities, regardless of the setting. Suicide is preventable, and implementation of suicide screening may provide early detection and intervention for at risk youth.

During this workshop we will provide you with the basic knowledge and background you need to understand suicide in your state or region. We will review and highlight reliable suicide prevention resources including the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, CDC, NIMH/NIH, Zero Suicide, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Additionally, discuss suicide screening measures which can be implemented within your community.

We have had great success at our institution and want to share our lessons learned. In our emergency department, over a 2-year period between 09/2019-08/2021, 31,344 children between the ages of 10-21 presented to the PED. Of those patients, 26,992 (86%) were screened for risk of suicide, which did not show a significant change during the pandemic (table 1; Z=-0.52, p=.61); minimum compliance rate was 83.8% and maximum was 89.4%. Of those screened, 5039 (19%) of patients screened positive for suicide risk; 1738 (7%) presented to the PED with a medical chief complaint versus 3077 (11%) that had a BH chief complaint (? [1, n=22889] = 6273.2, p< .001). We demonstrated that universal suicide risk screening for youth is feasible in a busy PED and we had higher-than expected rates of staff compliance. Compliance was also sustained with no significant change in screening compliance rates even during the COVID pandemic. We can show you how to have the same success.

You will learn how to build an evidence-based foundation for suicide prevention. There are many interventions and proven prevention strategies that can be easily adopted by you, your injury prevention center and your institution including the following, which we will highlight during this workshop: 1. Youth Risk Behavior Survey and WISQARS 2. Suicide Screening Measures - Ask Suicide Screening Questions (ASQ) - Columbia- Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) 3. Lethal Means Restriction Counseling 4. Zero Suicide Programs 5. Staff education opportunities 6. Annual suicide prevention trainings a. Question Persuade Refer Training (QPR) 7. Funding Opportunities

1. Appreciate the growing epidemic of youth suicide and need for prevention programs 2. Identify reliable sources of information about suicide and prevention programs 3. Develop a familiarity with some of the basic prevention strategies and explore how they can be implemented 4. Recognize potential funding sources for your suicide prevention work