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Slide 13:  Recommendations and best practices to ensure the suicide prevention policy aligns with legal and ethical requirements. 

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Slide 13:  Recommendations and best practices to ensure the suicide prevention policy aligns with legal and ethical requirements. 

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The purpose of the laws and guidelines previously mentioned enables counselors and other educators a means to efficiently assist suicidal students without other requirements, like those concerning confidentiality, hampering the process.  The implications for not following the law could result in the educator losing their job, professional certificate, and litigation as well as the loss of student life. The following best practices directly relate the laws and ethical guidelines to ensure a quick response to students in need.

The counselor must ensure that the school district creates a comprehensive suicidal prevention plan and include the policy in the District Improvement Plan.

The plan needs to outline suicide prevention training for all staff members.

The plan must outline suicide assessment, prevention, intervention, and postvention training for the school counselors.

Policies within the plan should ensure the supervision of suicidal students as well as parent notification procedures. The protocol should stress the importance of parent notification when the possibility of suicide exists as well as the need to break confidentiality to notify the appropriate individuals when the need arises.

The counselor must know local, community, and state intervention referral resources available to help suicidal students.

The plan must include procedures for reporting neglect when parents refuse to seek psychological help for a suicidal child.

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Texas Suicide Prevention website provides multiple sources to facilitate a Texas school to develop and publish a comprehensive suicide prevention plan in the District Improvement Plan as required by law.  The resources include recommendations for suicide safer schools, an implementation guide, state and national resources specific to youth environments, and much more (Texas Suicide Prevention, 2020).
References

Texas Suicide Prevention. (2020). School and youth material. Retrieved from https://texassuicideprevention.org/information-library/schools-and-youth-materials/

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If you need to talk or are concerned about someone, please call 1.800.273.TALK (8255) If you need extra help due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we provide a list of resources here.

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ASCA ethical standard regarding Appropriate Referrals and Advocacy mandates that school counselors “collaborate with all relevant stakeholders, including students, educators and parents/guardians when student assistance is needed, including the identification of early warning signs of student distress” (ASCA, 2016, p. 3).  When applying this standard to suicide prevention and suicide ideation, counselors possess an ethical obligation to notify parents if a possibility of suicide exists.
References

American School Counselor Association. (2016). ASCA ethical standards for school counselors. (Standard No A.6.a). Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

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According to the Canton ISD District Improvement Plan (2019), the district plans to implement a Crisis Management Plan that includes suicide prevention.
References
Canton Independent School District (CISD). (2019). Canton ISD District Improvement Plan. Retrieved from https://4.files.edl.io/b16f/02/18/20/230024-29ed3ce4-5794-4cd6-8056-ad6e8cdc7650.pdf

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The first judicial case involving student suicide against a school counselor occurred in Maryland in 1991. Two students made a murder-suicide pact, and friends of the two students informed the school counselor. After speaking with the students and them denying the existence of a pact, the counselor concluded no suicide threat exists. Although the school suicide-prevention policy directed the counselor to inform school officials as well as the parents when evidence of suicide ideations exists, the counselor failed to notify either. A few days later, the students completed their pact. The father of one of the students sued the counselor. Although the lower court dismissed the case, the court of appeals sent the case to trial on the grounds that a counselor possesses a duty to prevent suicide by warning parents of the possible suicide intent (Eisel v. Board of Education, 1991)
Reference
Eisel v. Board of Education, 324 Md. 376 (Md. 1991)

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The Suicide Prevention Training administrative law requires that all school districts ensure that all educators receive suicide prevention training, including educators new the district. The district must also maintain accurate records of educators that receive this training (19 TAC § 153.1013). This information remains pertinent to counselors since they often oversee suicide prevention training.
Reference
Suicide Prevention Training, 19 Tex. Admin. Code § 153.1013

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(a) All school districts and open-enrollment charter schools shall provide suicide prevention training as required by the Texas Education Code (TEC), §21.451(d), to all new school district and open-enrollment charter school educators as a part of new employee orientation during the 2016-2017 school year. (b) Each subsequent school year, school districts and open-enrollment charter schools shall provide suicide prevention training as required by the TEC, §21.451(d), to all new school district and open-enrollment charter school educators as a part of new employee orientation. (c) All school districts and open-enrollment charter schools shall provide suicide prevention training as required by the TEC, §21.451(d), to all currently employed school district and open-enrollment charter school educators on or by September 30, 2016. (d) Suicide prevention training that is required by the TEC, §21.451(d), and was provided to existing educators by a school district or open-enrollment charter school on or after September 1, 2013, may be used to meet the requirements of this section if the training program is on the recommended best practice-based list maintained by the Department of State Health Services (DSHS), in coordination with the Texas Education Agency (TEA), or is an online program that meets the TEA guidelines for independent review. (e) In accordance with the Health and Safety Code, §161.325, school districts shall maintain records that include the name of each educator who participated in the suicide prevention training. (f) Open-enrollment charter schools are encouraged to maintain suicide prevention training records that include the name of each educator who participated in the suicide prevention training.

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(a) All school districts and open-enrollment charter schools shall provide suicide prevention training as required by the Texas Education Code (TEC), §21.451(d), to all new school district and open-enrollment charter school educators as a part of new employee orientation during the 2016-2017 school year.

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The District-level Planning and Decision-making statute requires that school districts address the needs of suicidal students in the district improvement plan. The improvement plan should include suicidal prevention protocols that include parent notification procedures (Tex. Educ. Code § 11.252). School counselors often help develop suicide prevention plans.
Reference
District-level Planning and Decision-making, 11 Tex. Educ. Code § 11.252(3)(B)(I)

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EDUCATION CODE CHAPTER 11. SCHOOL DISTRICTS

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Sec. 11.002. RESPONSIBILITY OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. The school districts and charter schools created in accordance with the laws of this state have the primary responsibility for implementing the state's system of public education and ensuring student performance in accordance with this code.

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The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines neglect concerning suicides as the failure of a caregiver to provide basic emotional needs that include psychological care.  This act gives counselors and other school personnel grounds to report neglect to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) for refusing to seek psychological help for a suicidal child (42 U.S.C §5106g).
Reference
Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 42 U.S.C §5106(g)

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§5106g. Definitions

(a) Definitions

For purposes of this subchapter-

(1) the term "Alaska Native" has the meaning given the term "Native" in section 1602 of title 43;

(2) the term "infant or toddler with a disability" has the meaning given the term in section 1432 of title 20;

(3) the term "Native Hawaiian" has the meaning given the term in section 7517 of title 20;

(4) the term "sexual abuse" includes-

(A) the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or

(B) the rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children; and

(5) the term "withholding of medically indicated treatment" means the failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) which, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment, will be most likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting all such conditions, except that the term does not include the failure to provide treatment (other than appropriate nutrition, hydration, or medication) to an infant when, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment-

(A) the infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose;

(B) the provision of such treatment would-

(i) merely prolong dying;

(ii) not be effective in ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions; or

(iii) otherwise be futile in terms of the survival of the infant; or

(C) the provision of such treatment would be virtually futile in terms of the survival of the infant and the treatment itself under such circumstances would be inhumane.

(b) Special rule

(1) In general

For purposes of section 3(2) and subsection (a)(4), a child shall be considered a victim of "child abuse and neglect" and of "sexual abuse" if the child is identified, by a State or local agency employee of the State or locality involved, as being a victim of sex trafficking (as defined in paragraph (10) of section 7102 of title 22) or a victim of severe forms of trafficking in persons described in paragraph (9)(A) of that section.

(2) State option

Notwithstanding the definition of "child" in section 3(1), a State may elect to define that term for purposes of the application of paragraph (1) to section 3(2) and subsection (a)(4) as a person who has not attained the age of 24.

( Pub. L. 93-247, title I, §111, formerly §14, as added Pub. L. 100-294, title I, §101, Apr. 25, 1988, 102 Stat. 116; renumbered title I, §113, and amended Pub. L. 101-126, §3(a)(1), (2), (b)(7), Oct. 25, 1989, 103 Stat. 764, 765; renumbered §111 and amended Pub. L. 104-235, title I, §§110, 113(a)(1)(B), Oct. 3, 1996, 110 Stat. 3078, 3079; Pub. L. 111-320, title I, §§119, 142(b), Dec. 20, 2010, 124 Stat. 3477, 3483; Pub. L. 114-22, title VIII, §802(c)(1), (3), May 29, 2015, 129 Stat. 264; Pub. L. 114-95, title IX, §9215(o), Dec. 10, 2015, 129 Stat. 2170.)

References in Text

Section 3, referred to in subsec. (b), means section 3 of Pub. L. 93-247, which is set out as a Definitions note under section 5101 of this title.

Paragraphs (9)(A) and (10) of section 7102 of title 22, referred to in subsec. (b)(1), were redesignated pars. (11) and (12), respectively, of section 7102 of title 22 by Pub. L. 115-427, §2(1), Jan. 9, 2019, 132 Stat. 5503.

Prior Provisions

A prior section 111 of Pub. L. 93-247 was renumbered section 109 and is classified to section 5106e of this title.

Amendments

2015- Pub. L. 114-22, §802(c)(1), designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and inserted heading and added subsec. (b).

Subsec. (a)(5)(C). Pub. L. 114-22, §802(c)(3), substituted period for semicolon at end.

Par. (3). Pub. L. 114-95 made technical amendment to reference in original act which appears in text as reference to section 7517 of title 20.

2010-Pars. (1), (2). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(1), (2), redesignated pars. (7) and (8) as (1) and (2), respectively, and struck out former pars. (1) and (2) which read as follows:

"(1) the term 'child' means a person who has not attained the lesser of-

"(A) the age of 18; or

"(B) except in the case of sexual abuse, the age specified by the child protection law of the State in which the child resides;

"(2) the term 'child abuse and neglect' means, at a minimum, any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm;".

Par. (3). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(1)-(3), redesignated par. (10) as (3), struck out "and" at end, and struck out former par. (3) which read as follows: "the term 'Secretary' means the Secretary of Health and Human Services;".

Par. (4)(B). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(4), inserted "and" after semicolon at end.

Par. (5). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(1), (5), redesignated par. (6) as (5) and struck out former par. (5) which read as follows: "except as provided in section 5106a(f) of this title, the term 'State' means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,;".

Pub. L. 111-320, §119(1), inserted "except as provided in section 5106a(f) of this title," after "(5)", inserted "and" after "Samoa,", and struck out "and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands" after "Northern Mariana Islands,".

Par. (6). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(5), redesignated par. (6) as (5).

Par. (6)(C). Pub. L. 111-320, §119(2), substituted a semicolon for period at end.

Pars. (7) to (11). Pub. L. 111-320, §142(b)(1), (2), redesignated pars. (7), (8), and (10) as (1), (2), and (3), respectively, and struck out pars. (9) and (11) which read as follows:

"(9) the terms 'Indian', 'Indian tribe', and 'tribal organization' have the meanings given the terms in section 450b of title 25;"

"(11) the term 'unaccompanied homeless youth' means an individual who is described in paragraphs (2) and (6) of section 11434a of this title."

Pub. L. 111-320, §119(3), added pars. (7) to (11).

1996-Par. (1). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(1), (2)(A), redesignated par. (3) as (1) and struck out former par. (1) which read as follows: "the term 'board' means the Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect established under section 5102 of this title;".

Par. (2). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(A), (3), redesignated par. (4) as (2) and amended it generally. Prior to amendment, par. (2) read as follows: "the term 'child abuse and neglect' means the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of a child by a person who is responsible for the child's welfare, under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby, as determined in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary;".

Pub. L. 104-235, §110(1) struck out par. (2) which read as follows: "the term 'Center' means the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect established under section 5101 of this title;".

Par. (3). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(A), redesignated par. (6) as (3). Former par. (3) redesignated (1).

Par. (4). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(A), (4), redesignated par. (7) as (4) and in subpar. (B) inserted ", and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape" after "rape". Former par. (4) redesignated (2).

Par. (5). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(1), (2)(A), redesignated par. (8) as (5) and struck out former par. (5) which read as follows: "the term 'person who is responsible for the child's welfare' includes-

"(A) any employee of a residential facility; and

"(B) any staff person providing out-of-home care;".

Par. (6). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(B), redesignated par. (10) as (6). Former par. (6) redesignated (3).

Pars. (7), (8). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(A), redesignated pars. (7) and (8) as (4) and (5), respectively.

Par. (9). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(1), struck out par. (9) which read as follows: "the term 'task force' means the Inter-Agency Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect established under section 5103 of this title; and".

Par. (10). Pub. L. 104-235, §110(2)(B), redesignated par. (10) as (6).

1989- Pub. L. 101-126, §3(b)(7)(A), made technical amendment to reference to this subchapter to reflect the insertion of title designations in the original act.

Pars. (1), (2), (9). Pub. L. 101-126, §3(b)(7)(B)-(D), made technical amendments to references to sections 5101, 5102, and 5103 of this title to reflect renumbering of corresponding sections of original act.

Effective Date of 2015 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 114-95 effective Dec. 10, 2015, except with respect to certain noncompetitive programs and competitive programs, see section 5 of Pub. L. 114-95, set out as a note under section 6301 of Title 20, Education.

Amendment by Pub. L. 114-22 effective 2 years after May 29, 2015, see section 802(a) of Pub. L. 114-22, set out as a note under section 5106a of this title.

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(a) Definitions For purposes of this subchapter- (1) the term "Alaska Native" has the meaning given the term "Native" in section 1602 of title 43; (2) the term "infant or toddler with a disability" has the meaning given the term in section 1432 of title 20; (3) the term "Native

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Slide 5:  Current Article – Rise in Suicides Emphasizes Need to help Teens deal with Despair

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Slide 5:  Current Article – Rise in Suicides Emphasizes Need to help Teens deal with Despair

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The article emphasizes the need to help students cope with despair based on the trend of increasing suicide rates.  Help for students exists.  Counselors serve an essential role in identifying and referring students to mental health professionals for help (Raloff, 2019).

The article notes the large increase in suicide rates among teens and young adults and stresses the importance of providing help for students in crisis.

One therapy called dialectical behavior therapy shows promise.  A study sites that the suicide risk decreased by half for the experimental group of students that received DBT compared to conventional therapy.

Reference

Raloff, J. (2019, August 28). Rise in suicides emphasizes need to help teens deal with despair. Science News for Students. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/rise-suicides-emphasizes-teens-need-help-depression-despair

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New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, have revealed an alarming rise in suicide rates among U.S. teens and young adults. But experts have good advice that can help you or those around you deal with life-threatening despair.

Oren Miron led the study that mined the new statistics. He's a data scientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. While in high school, the suicide of a classmate made Miron realize "how fragile this age group is." His friend had not been depressed, but the boy had been bullied.

praetorianphoto/E+/Getty Images

If you worry about a friend, don't wait for her to volunteer what's troubling her. Ask. Your caring could just make all the difference, Adrian says.

As an adult, Miron remembered his friend. And he wanted to know how serious the suicide risk had become in high school and college students. A June 2018 CDC report showed the rate of U.S. suicides had climbed some 30 percent between 2000 and 2016. It was now 13.5 people per 100,000. Miron's team looked at these data, homing in on those for teens and young adults. The team also extended its analysis for an extra year.

By 2017, the researchers found, the suicide rate in mid-to-late teens had climbed to 11.8 per 100,000. That was 3.8 percentage points higher than it had been in 2007. Boys accounted for most of the increase. Their suicide rate was almost 18 per 100,000; among girls it was less than one-third of that - 5.4 per 100,000.

Since 2000, the rate in boys has been much higher than girls and edging further upward. It spiked even more between 2016 and 2017. In just one year, it jumped by more than 3 percentage points among 15- to 19-year-olds. The rise in girls over that year was about 0.5 percentage points. And among 20- to 24-year-olds, the suicide rate for males was 27.1 per 100,000, versus 6.2 per 100,000 in females.

As alarming as these numbers are, they might still be lower than the real rates, Miron and his team write in the June 18 issue of JAMA. Suicides are not always easy to recognize, Miron explains. And what's driving the troubling trend is currently unknown. It's something his team plans to investigate in the coming months.

If you know someone in crisis ... get them help

Sometimes it's clear that a teen or young adult is in trouble. Their personality may change suddenly. They may become withdrawn, angrier than usual or seemingly uninterested in much of anything. It's okay to ask these individuals how they're doing, says Molly Adrian. She's a clinical child psychologist at Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington. It's important to know if someone is seriously considering harming themselves, she says.

If their answer sounds particularly grim - like they've lost all hope of things ever getting better - then go ahead and ask if they have been thinking about suicide. Such a question won't increase someone's likelihood of trying to hurt themselves, Adrian says. Studies have shown that's not likely. And that the benefits of knowing outweigh the risks, she adds. If someone has considered suicide, she says, friends, family or others should immediately try to get this individual some help.

And there is help, Adrian notes. "There are concrete things we can do."

Steve Debenport/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Part of the DBT training teens got at sites in Seattle and elsewhere was to develop new coping skills. Family or caregivers participated in those sessions too.

For instance, Adrian and her colleagues have shown that a type of treatment known as dialectical (Dy-uh-LEK-tih-kul) behavior therapy, or DBT, can help. In DBT, patients get weekly individual therapy sessions. They also go to meetings with a group that helps them learn how to let go of past thoughts and to focus mindfully on the present. They learn how to understand and control their emotions as well, and how to understand their friends and family.

In one study of DBT, Adrian and her team worked at four U.S. centers with kids ages 12 to 18. These 173 youths, mostly girls, had intense thoughts of suicide and at one time had attempted some sort of self-harm. Each was randomly assigned to get one of two types of mental-health treatments for six months. Half got both individual and group conventional therapy. The rest got DBT.

In the six months after DBT training, kids were half as likely to still be seriously suicidal, Adrian's team found, when compared to teens getting conventional therapy only. The researchers described their results in the August 2018 JAMA Psychiatry.

The idea being taught with DBT, Adrian says, is that "you can talk about and share what's bothering you." Some kids have very troubled lives. They can be bullied by their peers or tormented by families. Horrible things may have happened to them or to people close to them. In DBT, no one will dismiss how awful their lives are.

The focus, Adrian says, is to show teens that there is "always hope that they can get beyond this." People will listen to them, help them learn how to cope with the stress in their lives and teach them to just do the best that they can. The message: Don't worry about perfection, just get through each day. One. Day. At. A. Time.

And let friends or others help, Adrian adds. If reaching out to a mental-health professional is too hard for someone in crisis, they should let a friend, family member or school counselor do it for them, she says. There are lots of people who are ready to help and want to help. They just need to know who they should reach out to.
Since 2016, suicide has become the second leading cause of death in the United States among people ages 15 to 29, according to the CDC. If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, please seek help. In the United States, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Or you can text 741-741. Please do not give up hope and do not suffer in silence.

Power Words
More About Power Words

behavior The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC is charged with protecting public health and safety by working to control and prevent disease, injury and disabilities. It does this by investigating disease outbreaks, tracking exposures by Americans to infections and toxic chemicals, and regularly surveying diet and other habits among a representative cross-section of all Americans.

clinical (in medicine) A term that refers to diagnoses, treatments or experiments involving people.

colleague Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

concrete To be solid and real.

data Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning.

high school A designation for grades nine through 12 in the U.S. system of compulsory public education. High-school graduates may apply to colleges for further, advanced education.

peer (noun) Someone who is an equal, based on age, education, status, training or some other features. (verb) To look into something, searching for details.

psychiatry (adj. psychiatric) A field of medicine where doctors study and treat diseases of the human mind. Treatments may consist of talking therapies, prescription drugs or both. People who work in this field are known as psychiatrists.

psychologist A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors.

risk The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

self-harm Intentionally injuring one's body. Examples may include cutting, scratching or burning oneself. This unhealthy behavior is typically a way this individual attempts to cope with emotional pain. It's usually not intended as a suicide attempt. Also known as self-injury.

statistics The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities and interpreting their meaning. Much of this work involves reducing errors that might be attributable to random variation. A professional who works in this field is called a statistician.

stress (in biology) A factor - such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution - that affects the health of a species or ecosystem. (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance (stressor) that disturbs a person or animal's usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative.

suicidal A mental state in which a person feels a strong impulse to take his or her own life (also known as committing suicide). Warning signs may include talking about wanting to die or about making plans to commit suicide; saying goodbye to people as if this person won't ever see them again; taking steps to make it possible to commit suicide, such as obtaining a gun or drugs that could cause death; being obsessed with the subject of death or dying; and withdrawing from social contact in a way that is unusual for that person.

therapy (adj. therapeutic) Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.

Citations

Journal: O. Miron et al. Suicide rates among adolescents and young adults in the United States, 2000-2017. JAMA. Vol 321, June 18, 2019, p. 2362. doi: 10.1128/MRA.00329-19.

Journal: H. Hedegaard, S.C. Curtin and M. Warner. Suicide rates in the United States continue to increase. NCHS Data Brief #309. June 2018, p. 1.

Journal: E. McCauley et al. Efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents at high risk for suicide: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Vol. 75, August 2018, p. 777. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.1109.

Journal: A. Winsler et al. Sleepless in Fairfax: The difference one more hour of sleep can make for teen hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and substance use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Vol. 44, February 2015, p. 362. doi: 0.1007/s10964-014-0170-3.

Janet Raloff is the editor of Science News for Students. Prior to this, she was an environmental reporter for Science News, specializing in toxicology. To her never-ending surprise, her daughter became a toxicologist.

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Rise in suicides emphasizes need to help teens deal with despair | Science News for Students

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New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, have revealed an alarming rise in suicide rates among U.S. teens and young adults. But experts have good advice that can help you or those around you deal with life-threatening despair. Oren Miron led the study that mined the new statistics.

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Slide 4:  Current Article – What it Takes to Make Suicide Prevention a Priority in School

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Slide 4:  Current Article – What it Takes to Make Suicide Prevention a Priority in School

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A school from Montana, a state with the highest suicide rate in the U.S, employed suicide prevention strategies that successfully reduced the need for intensive student assistance intervention by more than 60 percent (Nieskens & Robbins, 2018).

Nieskens and Robbins (2018) note that 20 percent of adolescents battle mental health disorders.

The article acknowledges the mental health issues emphasize the need for a meaningful suicide prevention plan that supports the students academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.

The school also noted the demand put on counselors.  To provide students with the necessary support, the school utilized teachers to monitor student well-being.

Reference

Nieskens, H., & Robbins, M. (2018, November 27). What it takes to make suicide prevention a priority in school. Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/11/28/what-it-takes-to-make-suicide-prevention.html

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Commentary

Mental health is an educator's responsibility

Montana has some of the most beautiful vistas in America within Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the state is also associated with an ugly statistic: Montana has the highest suicide rate in the nation. The rate, 29.2 suicides for every 100,000 residents, is nearly twice the national average. In Montana, suicide is the leading cause of death for children ages 10-14 and the second leading cause of death for children 15 to 24.

Montana's 2017 High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey data emphasizes the concern. Thirty one percent of the state's high school students felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row. Over 20 percent seriously considered attempting suicide. More than 16 percent made a plan about how they would attempt suicide. Nearly 10 percent attempted suicide. These awful statistics have educators around our state hastening to implement suicide prevention programs with staff and students.

Although there are many contributing factors to youth suicide, our school realized that to implement meaningful suicide prevention strategies, we had to acknowledge larger concerns regarding student mental health. Regrettably, approximately 1 in 5 American adolescents is contending with a serious mental-health condition. The prevalence of these conditions in our youths and the effect they can have on learning caused us to take a hard look at how to provide social, emotional, and behavioral supports for all learners.

And, so, four years ago, we implemented the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, a continuous improvement framework intended to identify and support students who were struggling academically, socially, emotionally, or behaviorally. We built staff consensus around the precept that we have a professional responsibility to ensure all students have the necessary supports to be successful. We cultivated the belief with staff that social-emotional needs were just as essential for student success as academic needs. We built upon the existing schoolwide positive behavior intervention program and added pathways of increasingly intensive, data-driven interventions for individual students.

We focused on implementing schoolwide prevention and intervention programs which positively and personally impacted every student. We began assigning each student a staff member to serve as their personal academic trainer, who advocates for student success and well-being. They meet with students daily in middle school and at least weekly in high school to set goals, develop plans for how to achieve these goals, motivate students, and celebrate student successes.

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These trainers also identify academic or social-emotional challenges that a student may be experiencing. They are asked to develop a positive, personal relationship with students so they may serve as a supportive resource if a student encounters challenges-be they academic, social, emotional, or behavioral. Since implementing this personal academic trainer program three years ago, we have reduced by more than two-thirds the number of students in our school who need a more intensive student assistance intervention plan, including in-school mental-health services.

We also realized we needed to draw upon the expertise of teachers to further identify which students required strategic or intensive mental-health services. Now, teachers screen all students twice annually using the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders, a universal behavioral screening system. Based on the results, some students are connected with regular, school-based mental-health services, both counselors and private providers operating in school facilities.

The high student-to-staff ratios and inadequate state and federal funding to support school mental-health services often leave counselors with limited resources. In our school, for example, our two guidance counselors each handle an average of more than 220 students; our sole school psychologist covers all 442 students.

To provide additional mental-health resources, we have established partnerships with multiple therapists, psychologists, and other private mental-health service providers. These providers deliver a Comprehensive School and Community Treatment program which includes access to school-based therapy, behavioral, and life-skills training.

Providers bill Medicaid and private insurance for the students' sessions, and the school provides the offices necessary to allow the therapists or case managers to meet with students during the school day. Now, roughly 10 percent of our school's population receives in-school mental-health-therapy services through CSCT, up from 4 percent four years ago when we greatly expanded the program.

Creating a school environment that continually and comprehensively supports the mental well-being of every student must be a focus for all educators. All schools should be looking for creative ways to address how to improve student mental health and prevent student suicide. Unfortunately, we both have had years in our careers where we lost one or more students to suicide.

It is a sad state of affairs when, at the conclusion of each academic year, we look forward to breathing a sigh of relief that we did not lose a student to suicide.

Published in Print: November 28, 2018, as Suicide Prevention Is Our Responsibility

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how principals navigate challenge series

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What It Takes to Make Suicide Prevention a Priority in School

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Commentary Montana has some of the most beautiful vistas in America within Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the state is also associated with an ugly statistic: Montana has the highest suicide rate in the nation. The rate, 29.2 suicides for every 100,000 residents, is nearly twice the national average.

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Slide 3:  Professional Association Resource

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Slide 3:  Professional Association Resource

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The American School Counselor Association provides a Model Suicide Prevention Plan linked to the organization’s website.  The booklet offers best practices and policies for the development of a suicide prevention plan. The organizations that contributed to its development include the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP), American School Counselor Association (ASCA), National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and The Trevor Project (Mortier, 2019).

Reference

Moutier, C., Marshall, D., Gibson, N., Cook, J., Strobach, K., & Briton, S. (2019). Model school district policy on suicide prevention: Model language commentary, and resources (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/PDFs/WebinarPowerPoints/AFSP_Model_School_Policy_Booklet.pdf

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A counselor’s role includes helping students work through academic, social, and emotional problems, and often students that experience social and emotional difficulties think about suicide. Although many associate suicides with mental health disorders, more than half of suicide deaths occur in individuals not previously diagnosed with a mental health condition (CDC, 2018). Thus, since counselors often act as first responders to students with mental health issues, diagnosed or not, suicide prevention proves significantly relevant to the school counseling field.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2018) reports a disturbing upward trend in suicide frequency across all states. In addition to an upsurge in suicides in the United States, the CDC calculated an astronomical rate increase in more than half of the states since 1999. Also, when one considers that “more teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED” (The Jason Foundation, n.d., para 3.), the disturbing trend and statistics signify the necessity of the school counselor’s role as well as the possibility of higher demand in student services.
References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Cdc vital signs. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/vs-0618-suicide-H.pdf

The Jason Foundation. (n.d.). Youth suicide statistics. Retrieved from http://prp.jasonfoundation.com/facts/youth-suicide-statistics/

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As a future high school counselor, the Legal Guide for Suicide Prevention and Suicide Ideation Reporting serves as a personal resource as well as an invaluable resource to other counselors who find themselves needing to write a suicide prevention plan or train other educators in suicide prevention.  Of all the issues counselors face with students, suicide prevention proves significant because the strategies involved may literally influence the life or death of students.