Labels: jails, prevention

Labels: depression, librarians, prevention, suicide

Labels: prevention, suicide

In focus groups in Chicago and Kansas City, both teenagers and their parents correctly identified many of the known risk factors for suicide, including mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, relational or social loss, and hopelessness.

However, study authors said it was concerning that some of the parents reported regular drug and alcohol use as being a normal part of adolescent development, rather than problem behavior.

Parents and teens suggested guns should be removed if an adolescent is known to be suicidal, but parents acknowledged they may not be able to identify a suicidal teen. Parents and teens didn't think suicide was a problem in their communities.

All groups were interested in learning how to identify and intervene with a suicidal adolescent.

Study authors conclude pediatricians should regularly screen all adolescents in their offices and encourage families to be open to discussing depression and suicide.

Labels: prevention, suicide, warning_signs

Weber said it's not unusual for a child that's 12 years old to take their own life.

"It is the second leading killer in the age group 12 to 24, which amazes a lot of people," she said.

Weber said there are a variety of things that are going on in a young person's life during that time.

"Developmentally and emotionally, there's a lot going on," she said. "Socially, there's a lot going on, but there's also a lot of pressure at school, there's pressure at home, bullying is on the increase. There's just so many factors that play into this."

Weber said that, at a young age, children can be very good actors. There are warning signs parents can look for in their children.

"Any sudden change in personality, withdrawing. Kids who want to sleep more. They're eating less. There's that whole affect about them that shows that they're sad. They're just pulling away," Weber said.

Labels: prevention, suicide

Sohn started reWIRED for Change, a program that uses episodes of "The Wire" to coach kids fresh out of the juvenile justice system how to make smarter life decisions.

"If you've been on 'The Wire' you have street cred and so that street cred is currency. So why not use that currency for the betterment of other folks," said Sohn.

"She taught us how to think before we react to something. I stopped hanging with the people I used to hang with. So it's helped me a lot," said [18-year-old Latavia] Cornish. "I know my dream. I know I'm going to be successful. That's why I'm staying out of trouble. I'm on the right path now, so all I got to do is make sure I stay that way."

Sonja Sohn is already working with a second group of troubled teens.

Labels: outreach, prevention

1. Praise your child's skills.
2. Encourage your child to participate in organized activities.
3. Encourage your child to stay physically active.
4. Provide emotional support and guidance to your child.
5. Talk to your child.

Labels: depression, parental_involvement, prevention, teens

Labels: depression, dropouts, mental_health, prevention

Because of the “domino effect” one suicide can have in a community, a growing chorus is calling for heightened awareness. Local suicide prevention advocates are forming coalitions. There is chatter at high schools, colleges and churches.

With suicide the third-leading cause of death among young people 15 to 19, the aim is to pierce the cloak of secrecy and stigma that surrounds it. …

“We want to have it in the forefront so people are talking about it,” said Mary Sullivan, a liaison for Community for Hope of the Fox Cities, a spin-off of the group in Oshkosh with the same name. The Fox Cities group is looking for volunteers and financial support to set up shop.

Labels: awareness, prevention, suicide

Project 59 is an initiative through Operation Turnaround, a Clarksville Police Department program that gives teens who have been in trouble with the law a chance to get their lives back on track. Through mentorship from officers and volunteers, students learn trades and are better equipped to make good choices.

Maaco owner Mitch Rollins explained: "This is a car that nobody wanted. It was shunned, put away from society, and nobody wants to look at it. That's the way (these children) feel when they are incarcerated. They lose their self-respect and self-esteem. We show them how to rebuild that through the car."

Sgt. John Hunt, a director and mentor with Operation Turnaround, said the project will give the participants training they can use to better their future. Communication skills, a sense of responsibility, commitment, team-building and problem-solving skills, along with discipline, can all be accomplished if the teens take the project seriously, he said.

Labels: mentoring, prevention, troubled_teenagers

Labels: prevention, violence

Studies from the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University have been looking at the tremendous impact that family meals have on children. Their research repeatedly shows how children suffer when they don't spend regular, casual time with their families gathered around the dinner table.

Here is a quote from their summary:

"Compared with teens who frequently had dinner with their families (five nights or more per week) those who had dinner with their families only two nights per week or less, were twice as likely to be involved in substance abuse. They were 2.5 times as likely to drink alcohol, and nearly three times as likely to try marijuana."

Labels: communication, family, meals, prevention, substance_abuse

• The university-designed program is in place in12 small and medium-sized towns in seven different states.
  
• Each city was matched with a town of similar size, which did not employ the program, as a way to test the impact of the program.
  
• Communities That Care started in 2004 and now involves more than 4,400 teens.

Labels: adolescent, community, prevention, substance_abuse

For 26 weeks, [Rev. Devon] Harris will work closely with troubled teens, finding out what their goals are, analyzing the positive and negative things in their lives, and try to get them back on the right track. ...

"It's basically to reprogram a young man. It goes 180 degrees backwards. It's war games helping teens figure out where they are going in life," said Harris.

Labels: prevention, troubled_teenagers

Instead of doling out small amounts to every community, the state chose to focus on dividing the money among the top 14 communities with teen substance abuse problems, said Jeannie Vickers, coordinator of prevention services at Tri-Town Community Action Agency. (Source: The Providence Journal)

Labels: alcohol_abuse, prevention

A 2008 study by America's Promise Alliance, a group founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, concluded that only 52 percent of students in the nation's 50 largest school systems graduate in four years.

About 57 percent of Hispanic and 53 percent of African-American students graduate with a regular diploma in four years, according to the study, which puts the national graduation rate at 70 percent.

"Finishing high school is absolutely basic to being a success at any place in our society. We can't afford this," Powell said.

"If we lose these youngsters from our educational system, it doesn't mean they're all going to jail," Powell said. "It just means they're not going to have the same earning potential as they would if they finished school. And ultimately that will affect them, and it will affect the nation."

Labels: dropouts, prevention, schools

"A random shooting took the life of a successful teenage commercial artist. Today, his memory lives on through a youth program Porter created called Choice Time. Children, many of them with troubled pasts, help raise money to support awareness for juvenile crime. In the process, kids learn to make positive choices..."

Labels: prevention, violence

"Locally-run programs will target hundreds of at risk kids in their early teens in central, southwest and southeast Seattle, where the problems are most acute. The programs will help them stay in school and get job training, manage their anger and back away from the cycle of crime after early scrapes with the law."

Labels: community, prevention

"The other large event for the month is a family-based celebration provided by Families by Choice, led by Murial Ryan, called 'Celebrate the Family Table'. There will be food and activities, and the event will take place at Gilbert Park..."

Labels: drugs, influences, prevention

"The American College Health Association's 2006 National College Health Assessment found that nine percent of students enrolled in a higher education institution had seriously considered suicide within the past year, and that 1.3 percent actually attempted suicide."

Labels: grants, prevention, suicide

"[Terry] Pechacek [of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] blamed the trend in part on cuts on anti-smoking campaigns by states that had been funded by a nationwide 1998 settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry....At the same time, cigarette companies have continued to increase their spending on promotional activities...."

Labels: prevention, smoking, teenagers

"To Write Love On Her Arms [is] an international organization that provides counseling and assistance to teenagers suffering with depression, addiction or self-mutilation issues."

Labels: counseling, prevention, suicide

"Safe housing for girls to escape violent and domineering pimps: nonexistent. Outreach programs: understaffed. Substance abuse and mental health counselors: untrained to address these teens. 'I don't even know how to ask them these questions,' one social worker admitted."

Labels: girls, prevention, prostitution

"The best evidence: Brown University took smokers to the gym three times a week and found adding the exercise to a smoking-cessation program doubled women's chances of successfully kicking the habit."

Labels: addictions, exercise, prevention

"The kids that attended Saturday's program at the La Plata Campus of the College of Southern Maryland came from different situations. While some are known to skip school regularly, others are go-getters who took the opportunity to attend the various workshops."

Labels: education, prevention, schools

"Mental illness affects a majority of people who commit suicide, according to Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, a national group dedicated to suicide prevention and based in Bloomington, Minn. And one in five teens experience depression before becoming adults, Wylie said."

Labels: prevention, suicide, treatment_programs

"Idaho launched the campaign in January. It includes TV ads, radio ads and billboard spots across the state. 'This is not a pretty drug,' [Executive Director Megan Ronk] says. 'This is not something we can sugar coat.'"

Labels: media, meth, prevention

"About 1 in 4 students said they believed meth could make them happy, and help them lose weight. Jose Deniz, CSI student says, 'I think that's exactly it. They're just not educated into exactly what it does to your body and how it deteriorates you. If they were to get some information or knowledge on it, they would probably think differently."

Labels: attitudes, education, prevention

"Research reports in 2004 and 2007 found that suicide attempts were 40 percent less for students in the SOS high school program than for the control group. The results were similar across racial and socioeconomic groups. Because of such studies, SOS is listed on the National Registry of Effective Programs maintained by the US government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration."

Labels: education, http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif, prevention, suicide

"What should you and your family do? You need to enter into her life, get to know her again and ignore the abuse she's going to dish out while you attempt to bring her back into the fold. Do things with her, include her in family matters and don't take no for an answer."

Labels: influences, prevention, risky_behaviors

Labels: awareness, delinquents, prevention

"A year later, a suicide prevention presentation...has made its way around the state [of Oklahoma] and overseas to China, reaching more than 2,000 people so far, and garnering Parker a national award from the medical clothing maker Cherokee."

Labels: prevention, suicide, warning_signs

"Overall, there were 4,599 suicides among young people in 2004, making it the third-leading cause of death, surpassed only by car crashes and homicide... Males committed suicide far more often than females, accounting for about three-quarters of suicides in this age group."

Labels: awareness, prevention, suicide

Labels: crisis, prevention, suicide

"[Chief Assistant State Attorney Jay] Plotkin says most studies show teens who come through a program like this will not get in trouble with the law and will understand that if they make the wrong choices they will end up in jail."

Labels: consequences, jails, prevention

"'From what I've read, I think the approaches which try to shock students, either through videos of terrible accidents or other videos that emphasize the gruesome nature of things, the conclusions there are they are not effective and may be counterproductive,' [First Lady Nancy] Freudenthal said. Freudenthal isn't exactly sure why that's the case, but said it might be because students typically don't believe bad things can happen to them."

Labels: education, influences, prevention

"According to the center, the PEP program is a dropout prevention program for pregnant and parenting teens... The program offers help during the academic year to anyone enrolled in a Henderson County school and actively attending."

Labels: prevention, schools, teen_pregnancy

"'Early identification and access to help is the best way to reach out to children and adolescents at a very vulnerable time in their lives,' said Sally Fiehrer, director of the Butler County National Alliance on Mental Health."

Labels: prevention, risky_behaviors, suicide