News-Letter

Pills such as these Prozac tablets are prescribed to most teenagers who experience symptoms of severe depression and mental problems. [Click to enlarge]

According to the Washington Post, each year around 8 percent of teens report making a suicide attempt in the past year, and about 1,600 succeed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the ages 10 to 24 interval, suicide is the third-leading cause of death, following auto accidents and homicides.

In response to these alarming statistics, many programs have been implemented around the country to assist teenagers in figuring out life-altering problems.

One such example is the Columbia TeenScreen Program, which involves a series of tests and interviews designed to sort through a large group of teens and identify the few kids at high risk for depression and suicide. According to the Washington Post, along with the mental health advocacy group Positive Action for Teen Health (PATH), TeenScreen has launched an ambitious plan to screen every teen in America.

PATH argued that since most teenagers are probed for a wide range of conditions such as amblyopia and hearing problems, scoliosis and tuberculosis, mumps and head lice, flat feet and language delays, measles and myopia, mental health should also be a top priority.

"We'd like to see screening for depression and risk of suicide become more commonplace, a routine part of high schools' student health programs", says David Shaffer, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, in a recent interview with the Washington Post. "We want it to become part of the culture."

Programs such as TeenScreen's take a different approach to mental health issues because their goal is not to be a pedantic assist line for troubled kids. Rather, TeenScreen provides an environment where the teenager can speak freely about issues and one can identify the youth at highest risk, allowing for appropriate treatment.

According to the Washington Post, the TeenScreen system is comprised of four parts: After receiving parental permission, all kids in a class or group take a simple, 10- to 15-minute written questionnaire asking if they've thought about or attempted suicide, feel depressed or use drugs or alcohol. Some of these questions include issues that involve past mental health expression. These questions are geared to help in the recovery.

Because of the National Institute of Mental Health 2000 report, which stated that of the suicide-help programs that were evaluated, none has proven to be effective. In fact, they argue that some programs have had unintended negative effects by making at-risk youth more distressed and less likely to seek help.

But scientists like John Kalafat disagree.

"It's the same old argument, that somehow kids are more likely to commit suicide because we talk openly about it," he said in a recent interview with the Washington Post.

Despite the different views on suicide prevention programs, every group agrees that more research is needed to determine the optimal treatment program. Furthermore, there is a general consensus within the scientific community that overall, teenagers need better education about all mental health issues, especially depression.

"We're out here on the front lines," said Fred Davis, president and executive director of Parents Against Teen Suicide, Inc. which conducts educational programs and interventions mainly in North Carolina, in a recent interview with the Washington Post. Davis said that Parents Against Teen Suicide, Inc. helped get 25,000 people into the mental health care system and has gone out to intervene in 2,000 potential suicides, only one of which resulted in a death.

Amidst all concerns about suicide and mental health, one thing is for certain: Getting treatment early is essential to the teenager's well being.

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