Education Law

New Approach to Reduce Suicide Attempts Among Teens at Risk

By Charles Fox

A recently published report addresses a new approach to teenage suicide attempts. The report is summarized as follows:

"A novel psychotherapy used in the study?cognitive behavioral therapy for suicide prevention (CBT-SP?was developed to address the need for a specific psychotherapy that would prevent or reduce the risk for suicide reattempts among teens. CBT-SP consisted of a 12-week acute treatment phase focusing on safety planning, understanding the circumstances and vulnerabilities that lead to suicidal behavior, and building life skills to prevent a reattempt. A maintenance continuation phase followed the acute phase."

The preliminary findings of this report, although based upon a small sample,  show real effectiveness in address this pressing issue. I hope school social worker and psychologists will review the findings and take stock of the need for intensive therapy to addresses the lethal risks.

This past year I have had at least double the number of teen clients who have had severe mental health issues and many of them at risk of suicide. The response from the schools has varied from total denial of the issue, to avoidance of the issue, or claiming it was merely a family issue having nothing to do with the educational needs of the child. I had one school social worker claim that the student was not hearing voices since he had never seen him conversing to someone who was not there. When asked if he had actually asked the student the basic question "are you hearing voices" he finally admitted that he had not, but claimed there was no basis to ask the question since he never observed anything unusual making the whole discussion quite circular.  He persisted in this argument despite the fact that parents had emailed and report their child's unusual behavior to the social worker.

The unfortunate fact is that the risks of suicide for teens are real and apparently increasing. School personnel need to be vigilant and mindful when parents report aberrant behaviors, depressive patterns and other risk factors.

Full post as published by Special Education Law Blog on October 10, 2009 (boomark / email).