Describe steps that individuals and institutions can take to prevent adolescent suicide.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

To prevent suicide, parents and teachers must be trained to pick up on the signals that a troubled teenager sends. Schools and community settings can help by strengthening adolescents' connections with their cultural heritage and by providing knowledgeable, approachable, and sympathetic counselors, peer support groups, and information about telephone hot lines. Once a teenager takes steps toward suicide, staying with the young person, listening, and expressing compassion and concern until professional help can be obtained are essential. Treatments for depressed and suicidal adolescents range from antidepressant medication to individual, family, and group therapy. Sometimes hospitalization is necessary to ensure the teenager's safety. Until the adolescent improves, removing weapons, knives, razors, scissors, and drugs from the home is vital. Strengthening social supports and training young people in effective strategies for coping with stress and depressed mood promote resilience and can prevent repeated suicide attempts. On a broader scale, gun-control legislation that limits adolescents' access to the most frequent and deadly suicide method would greatly reduce both the number of suicides and the high teenage homicide rate.