Research Exercise Youth Suicide

true

You must read each slide, and complete any questions on the slide, in sequence.

Research Exercise

Youth Suicide

Young people are increasingly vulnerable to suicide. Youth suicide is a public concern, and it needs to be approached with sensitivity and insight. Although suicide is an uncomfortable topic for parents and families to discuss with their children, a lack of discussion stigmatizes young people’s thoughts of death and encourages them not to talk to family and friends when they are contemplating taking their own lives. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), among other agencies, considers youth suicide a major public health concern and believes that more discussion and education need to be undertaken to provide resources and support for youth who have attempted suicide or contemplated it.

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide-datasheet-a.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide_factsheet-a.pdf

After reading “Suicide: Facts at a Glance 2015” and “Understanding Suicide: Fact Sheet 2015” on the CDC Web site, consider the questions below. Then submit your responses.

1 of 5

For young people age 10–24, suicide is the

leading cause of death.

2 of 5

What is the primary method of suicide used by young people?

3 of 5

How many young people receive medical care each year for self-inflicted injuries?

4 of 5

What is one reason why, of all young people in the United States, Native American youth are at the highest risk for suicide?

One possible answer is that the isolation and insulation of the Native American culture may not permit outside health care and mental health professionals to provide educational resources and training to tribes to screen for risk factors of suicide.

5 of 5

The article lists several risk factors for suicide. What is one method of suicide prevention based on these risk factors?

One possible answer is to remove all firearms or weapons from the home if an identified risk factor is easy access to a lethal means of ending one’s life.

Note: Web links in this activity lead you to external sites. Some URLs change frequently and may appear as broken links. If you encounter a broken link, visit our Web Links page to see if a replacement link is provided or try searching for the article or organization in your Web browser. To report a broken link, contact technical support through the help option in LaunchPad.