Information for Youth If You Want to Help Your Friends, School or Community: Here are some resources for activities you might consider implementing in your communities and schools: Marvel Comics "Captain America" Promotes Suicide Prevention Awareness: This free digital comic book features a young man who calls the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline asking for help. It is also available as an IPhone application. Nemours Foundation: Special section for Teens, with information on a variety of topics, including suicide National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide: Formed to stop the tragic epidemic of suicide in minority communities. Strategies include: research to identify the unique factors in minority communities that contribute to suicide, community-based strategies to prevent suicide and the associated problems of violence and depression, corporate partnerships to expand opportunity and build alliances in inner cities, and assistance to local government, law enforcement, schools, and mental health officials to make a bigger impact in suicide prevention. Parents as Partners: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Parents: A booklet listed in the SPRC's Best Practices Registry that includes information about depression, warning signs of suicide, recommendations for how to address possible suicide risk in children, and sources of additional information. Suicide Prevention Voices of Education (SAVE): The SAVE mission is to prevent suicide through public awareness and education, reduce stigma, and serve as a resource for those touched by suicide. Resources on depression.
If You Are Thinking About Suicide: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour, toll-free suicide prevention service available to anyone in suicidal crisis. If you need help, please dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You will be routed to the closest possible crisis center in your area. With more than 130 crisis centers across the country, our mission is to provide immediate assistance to anyone seeking mental health services. Call for yourself, or someone you care about. Your call is free and confidential.
When Someone You Know is Suicidal: SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education)
Suicide Prevention Resource Center Information for Teens: Information also available as a printable PDF file.
Social Networking Resources
Break Through the Static: San Francisco Bay Area-based organization with the mission of transforming families, schools and communities by exclusively supporting teenagers affected by suicide.
Lifeline Gallery: Uses speaking avatar products to enable suicide survivors, attempt survivors, and suicide prevention supporters to share their stories of hope and recovery. The compilation of stories illustrates the many ways in which suicide affects others and offers comfort to those who may be suffering alone.
Lifeline MySpace Profile (for those who are members of MySpace):
Lifeline Facebook Page (for those who are members of Facebook)
Lifeline YouTube Channel: Contains public service announcements (PSAs) and suicide prevention media
Webinar, "Generation Wired: Social Networking and Engaging Youth in Suicide Prevention," presented by Well Aware, March 2011. Related resource sheet.
Information for Parents
Understanding When Your Child May Be Suicidal and Ways to Help, American Psychological Association, 2009.
Department of Veteran Affairs: Contains information about mental health issues, including suicide prevention, for veterans, as well as resources for counseling college students who are veterans.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention—Teen Suicide Prevention Campaign
Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council: Community-based organization dedicated to preventing suicide, reducing the stigma associated with suicide, and supporting those people affected by depression or by the loss of a loved one to suicide.
Mental Health America: Country’s leading nonprofit dedicated to helping ALL people live mentally healthier lives. With our more than 320 affiliates nationwide, represents a growing movement of Americans who promote mental wellness for the health and wellbeing of the nation – everyday and in times of crisis. Suicide Factsheet
National Association of School Psychologists: Represents school psychology and supports school psychologists to enhance the learning and mental health of all children and youth.
Preventing Youth Suicide - Tips for Parents and Educators
National Youth Violence Prevention—Youth Suicide Fact Sheet
Nemours Foundation—About Teen Suicide: Largest and most-visited site on the web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date, and jargon-free health information they can use.
Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide: Started in 2006 by two fathers who had lost teenaged children to suicide. Core values: Passionate commitment to the value of life; belief in the effectiveness of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies; dedication to removing public stigma about suicide; conviction that accurate information and education about suicide can save lives. Includes sections for teens, parents and educators.
When Are Youth Serious About Suicide? From the Facts for Families series from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Mothers Push for Action to Prevent Youth Suicide, Scranton Times-Tribune, March 6, 2011
The Pennsylvania Suicide Prevention Initiative is a Public/Private Ongoing Collaborative including: Survivors of Suicide, Statewide & Regional Representatives from Departments of Public Welfare, Health, Education, and Aging, Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission, County MH/MR Administrators Association and several county programs, County CASSP Coordinators, American Trauma Society, The STAR Center, PA Child Death Review Team, PA Protection and Advocacy, PA Psychiatric Society, PA Association of School Social Workers, NAMI of PA, Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Mental Health Association of PA, PIN of PA, PA Del Val NAPNAP, a County Medical Examiner, a City Health Bureau, a State University, a Behavioral Health MCO, Common Roads, Juvenile Detention Center Association of PA, Pennsylvania Community Providers Association, Pennsylvania Council on Children, Youth, and Family Services, Providers and Student Assistance Program Trainers, School Districts, Yellow Ribbon Chapters, Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council, multiple county task forces and other grassroots organizations.
