Newswise — Every 16 minutes, someone in the United States commits suicide, according to the American Association of Suicidology (AAS). Worldwide, there is a suicide every 40 seconds.
The AAS says that in 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available, 33,300 people in the U.S. completed suicide. Of these, 4,189 were between the ages of 15 and 24. For every completed suicide in this young population, there are an estimated 100 to 200 attempts.
Donna Amundson, L.C.S.W., manager of UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare’s Traumatic Loss Coalitions (TLC) for Youth Program, is available to discuss issues surrounding suicide during Suicide Prevention Week, September 6-12.
The week wraps around “World Suicide Prevention Day,” which is Thursday, Sept. 10. The day represents a call for action and involvement by governments and organizations worldwide to contribute to suicide awareness and prevention. Its theme this year is “Suicide Prevention in Different Cultures” and will focus on raising awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death on a global level.
Risk factors for suicide include mental illness, substance abuse, previous suicide attempts, hopelessness, access to lethal means, recent loss, and, especially for adolescents and young adults, exposure to a peer’s suicide.
Protective factors, those that buffer against suicide and suicidal behaviors, include high self-esteem, social connectedness, problem-solving skills, access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders, and supportive family and friends.
Amundson can discuss suicide prevention and intervention, as well as coping strategies for those impacted following death by suicide. These subjects also will be addressed at the TLC’s upcoming 7th Annual Youth Suicide Prevention Conference, entitled “Ethnocultural Variables in Youth Suicide: African American, Asian and Latino Perspectives.” The conference continues the World Suicide Prevention Day theme of preventing suicide in different cultures and will be presented in three regions of New Jersey on Nov. 16, 17 and 18.
The Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth Program is an interactive statewide network that offers collaboration and support to professionals working with school-age youth to ensure that they have current knowledge about mental health issues, suicide prevention, traumatic grief, and resiliency enhancement. Its mission is excellence in suicide prevention and trauma response assistance to schools following losses due to suicide, homicide, accident and illness.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with nearly 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
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