Youth Suicide
Introduction
Suicide is a tragic event. It has a profound personal effect on all
associated with the person who died. Families, friends and society as
a whole are affected. There is a particular poignancy when the suicide
is that of a young person at the threshold of life.
Australia has the fifth highest suicide rate per 100 000 persons in
the world. While suicide is highest among males, suicide attempts are
higher among females and youth suicide among males are highest in
rural / remote areas. 1
This essay will examine some of the issues of youth suicide. The focus
will be to view the underlying factors and the strategies employed to
intervene and prevent a potential young person from suiciding.
Multiplicity of Factors
It is apparent that suicide is now a major cause of death among young
people in Australia today. While numbers of deaths are highest in
urban areas, the problem has particular significance in rural areas,
where a greater proportion of young males is involved in fatal self
harm.
What is also becoming apparent is that many causes have been linked to
suicidal behaviour. As recently as a decade ago, it was still common
to seek to find explanations in the immediate circumstances of the
person who died. A dispute at school or home, the ending of a teenage
romance or minor trouble with the law were frequently cited as causes
in individual cases. The following examines a broad range of issues
that may be viewed as contributing factors in youth suicide.
Mental Health
A critical question in addressing youth suicide is the extent to which
mental health problems and illnesses are invol...
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... pp 10 - 45.
4. P. Baume, "Suicide in the Bush : Myth or Reality". (Canberra:
Australia National University Press, 1996) pp 15 - 63.
5. M. Stainsby, "Youth Suicide and Suicide Prevention". (Sydney:
Sydney University Press, 1998) pp 27 - 52.
Bibliography
Baume, P. "Suicide in the Bush : Myth or Reality". (Canberra:
Australia National University Press, 1996) pp 15 - 63.
Baume, P. "Suicide in Australia". (Canberra: Australia National
University Press, 1997) pp 24 - 56.
Hassan, P. "Suicide Explained : The Australian Experience".
(Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1995) pp 32 - 48.
Ruzicka, L. "Youth Suicide in Australia". (Canberra: Australian
National University Press, 1999) pp 10 - 45.
Stainsby, M. "Youth Suicide and Suicide Prevention". (Sydney: Sydney
University Press, 1998) pp 27 - 52.
The main argument in this article is that there needs to be more ways to help people that are suicidal. The main point of this article is that they want to people to be more aware of how to help someone, and it is also full of information. The topics that are covered in the article are the issues at hand, the background with suicide in teens, and the next step that society needs to take. This article is about helping people that are suicidal and how to help them and let us know the next step that we need to take.
Nowadays, people considered youth suicide as an ordinary event in the society because of its frequency. However, it changed in 2012 when three high school students from different schools in Perth committed suicide within days (Hiatt 2012 para. 2). It caught media’s attention and had people thinking about the responsibility of Australia to prevent youth suicides from happening. A lot of people say that Australia has done enough while others object and argue that Australia hasn’t done enough yet.
According to Fowler, Crosby, Parks, and Ivey (2013), suicide and nonfatal suicidal ideations are significant public health concerns for adolescents and young adults. While the onset of suicidal behaviors is observed as young as six years of age, rates of death and nonfatal injury resulting from suicidal behavior are moderately low until 15 years of age (Fowler et al., 2013). According to Fowler et al (2013), the most current available statistics in the United States (U. S.) reported suicide as the third leading cause of death among youth aged 10-14 and 15-19 years, and it was the second leading cause of death among persons aged 20-24 years.
Joseph Connelly Gazzola used to be a Northeastern University football star. He has since taken his own life, and it has hit everyone he knew very hard.
A mother finds her 17 year old teenage son hanging from the rafters of their basement. To hear of this occurrence is not rare in society today. Every 90 minutes a teenager in this country commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The National suicide rate has increased 78% between 1952 and 1992. The rate for 15-19 year olds rose from two per 100,000 to 12.9, more than 600 percent. (Special report, Killing the Pain, Rae Coulli)
Youth take their own lives for a plethora of reasons, although none of these reasons should actually constitute an attempt at suicide. What is it then, that brings a teen to commit suicide? What factors lead to suicidal tendencies on the part of the adolescent? The enigma of youth suicide is multidimensional. As we will discover herein, the major theories on youth suicide can be categorized into three fundamental causes. Adolescent suicide is the result of one, or a...
Teen suicide is a social issue that the world is going through. Teen suicide is a problem that affects the whole world , mainly because this issue is global. Global means that the whole world is having the same issue that they are going through and that no one can control. The teen suicide rate has been increasing in the world since 1999. Research has shown that half of the youth every year have taken their own lives away by using firearms. Teen suicide is the 3rd most leading cause of death in the world of ages 15-24 (Teen Suicide 1). Also teen suicide is the 4th leading cause of death of the ages 10-14 (Teen Suicide 1). Researches have notice that females only attempt suicide. While males actually dies by suicide. The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) states
Suicidal tendencies in adolescents begin around the ages of 10 through 19, with warning signs, prevention, treatment, and the causes and effects it has on the human psyche. Suicide is when someone decides to take his or her own life because and are suffering from a painful mental treatable illness and have lost hope in who they are. Because when hope is lost, some feel like suicide is the only solution to truly make the adolescents pain go away permanently. Scientific evidence that shows the people who have committed suicide had a diagnosable treatable mental disorder or substance abuse disorder (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). Those people might have been suffering from illness such as depression, mood disorders, personality disorders and or suffering from bullying. Being a victim of bullying can be linked to suicidal thoughts as well as behavior in adolescents. Other causes might also include having family problems at home, problems at work, school and or with school peers. Suicide is a serious problem though it not only affects the victim, but it also affects family members, loved ones, along with friends.
In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established that 6.3% of high school students have attempted suicide in the preceding year. Given the lethal consequences of suicide attempts, determining risk factors among adolescents becomes especially important. Generally speaking, psychiatric disorders and substantial psychosocial impairments are known to be associated with suicide attempts. However, previous research attempting to identify specific risk factors in adolescents is somewhat ambiguous. Nonetheless, one thing is consistent. When measuring the risk of an adolescent committing suicide, information must come from a variety of sources and perspectives. These sources may include but are not limited to a clinical interview with the adolescent, information provided by the parent or guardian, standardized assessments and previous psychiatric documents from the individual.
accidents, and other diseases, but by their own hand. These people make the choice that
The community impact, which includes national, state, and community level, is crucial for suicide prevention in adolescents. By having the community involved, it allows a more effective prevention plan, along with measures on how to properly handle the situation more efficiently. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Surgeon General and National Action Alliance for Suicide, revised the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) in 2012. In which, they classified suicide prevention interventions into two categories: prevention targeted at the level of the individual and prevention targeted at the level of the population. (HHS, 2012). To target at the level of the individual, the NSPP emphasized the role every American can play in protecting their loved ones from suicide. To target prevention at the level of the population, the NSPP provide a framework for schools, businesses, health systems, clinicians and many other sectors by learning from their conducted research and teaching ways to identify patterns of suicide and suicidal behavior throughout a group or population. There is also the Best Practices Registry Suicide Prevention (BPR) which is a a registry for the best practices in a specific area. The BPR is maintained by the collaboration of the Suicide Prevention Center (SPRC) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The registry is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which identifies, reviews, and disseminates information about best practices that address specific objectives for the NSSP (“Suicide Prevention”, 2009). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Surgeon General and National Action Alliance fo...
Today, teenage suicide is considered a big issue in America. Many factors contribute to this action whether it is overdosing on alcohol and drugs, cutting ones wrist with a sharp object, or pulling the trigger of a gun to put an end to their existence. Suicide is on the rise due to many factors such as family issues, social issues, and psychological issues. Increased education and awareness for the victims and their families could drastically reduce the number of suicide attempts yearly.
Teen suicide as an extremely complex tragedy, that unfortunately happens all the time throughout the United States. There are friends, parents, and peers that are facing the misfortune of losing a young, close, loved one to suicide. Most people don't realize that adolescent suicide is common. They don't want to believe how often this occurs in the secure environment found in the small towns of America, as well as in its largest cities.
Most everyone at some time in his or her life will experience periods of anxiety, sadness, and despair. These are normal reactions to the pain of loss, rejection, or disappointment. Those with serious mental illnesses, however, often experience much more extreme reactions, reactions that can leave them mired in hopelessness. And when all hope is lost, some feel that suicide is the only solution.