How To Talk To Teens About Suicide
How To Talk To Teens About Suicide
Learn new ways to address this challenging subject. PLUS: Google is giving schools money to support mental health - find out how your school can sign up.
Hi readers - I hope your week is starting off well.
I’m busy back at my job as a Teacher on Special Assignment with San Francisco public schools, where I provide support and guidance to health teachers. I LOVE working with teachers, and try to let them know how much I appreciate them every time I get a chance.
Teaching health education classes requires having a lot of frank conversations about “challenging” topics. These are things that are so important that we HAVE to talk about them, even if it feels awkward.
One of those topics is suicide.
This issue has personally affected me and my family, and I know how devastating suicide and suicide attempts can be. That’s why I want to help people talk about it.
Parents and caregivers often don’t know what to say to young people about suicide, or worry so much about saying the wrong thing that they don’t say anything at all.
In this newsletter, I share some of the resources I turn to most often for discussions on this topic, both at home and in the classroom. I hope you’ll use them and share them with others. We all have a part to play in preventing teen suicide.
Big love,
Christopher
Learn The Risk Factors For Suicide
One of sites I regularly turn to for support and information around youth mental health issues is the Child Mind Institute, which provides practical, reliable resources that are easy to share. Here’s some information from its page “Teen Suicides: What Are the Risk Factors?”
It’s impossible to predict whether a young person might become suicidal. But there are things that put them at a higher risk.
Recent or serious losses increase risk for suicide. Losses include death of a family member, friend or even pet. Other kinds of losses are risk factors too. Parents divorcing, loss of their home or a breakup are all risk factors.
Other risk factors are mental health problems like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Past suicide attempts, a family history of suicide, or having a way to get a gun are big risks as well. If a kid is struggling with their sexual identity in a family or community that is not supportive, that can be a risk. So can bullying at any age for any reason. And if a kid doesn’t feel like they can rely on friends and family, that’s a problem too.
The site has a ton of useful information in its “Suicide and Self Harm” resource hub, including:
We Need To Talk About Depression
Erika’s Lighthouse offers free mental health lessons for elementary, middle, and high school teachers, as well as resources for families and training for adults. They also help students set up youth-led Good Mental Health Clubs.
Here’s the organization’s message about why they think we need to talk about depression, not just suicide:
Depression shares many signs and symptoms with suicide – making it an ideal gateway. Working upstream offers an opportunity to address suicide before suicidal ideation even occurs.
Depression affects more youth. Over 40% of youth are experiencing symptoms of depression. While only 20% are experiencing suicidal ideation. This is a unique opportunity to intervene early and support youth before suicidal ideation even occurs.
The signs and symptoms are almost identical. Depression and suicide share a number of similar signs and symptoms. This makes it an ideal way to talk about mental health and suicide in meaningful ways that allow for early identification and intervention.
Depression is a key “gateway” to discuss mental illness. Depression is common. Depression is serious. Depression is treatable. Everyone knows someone experiencing depression which means it is an opportunity talk about it in a normalized way.
Early intervention works. Mental health is a spectrum. From stress to anxiety, anxiety to depression, depression to suicide. We can stop this progression with positive coping mechanisms and support. Everyone deserves good mental health.
Over 90% of suicides have an underlying mental illness. The vast majority of suicides are individuals with depression many undiagnosed. This means identifying depression early can prevent suicide, and even suicidal ideation, from even taking place.
Depression Education IS Suicide Prevention. Not only can we prevent suicide, we can improve quality of life, treatment outcomes and more.
988 Is Here For You
Please remember - if you or someone you love needs support, you can call or text 988 to reach someone immediately. Here’s a great outline about what to expect.
How To Teach Teens About 988
For parents and teachers who want to introduce 988 to teens, The Glow Media Project’s free short film There Can Be Light may be helpful. Here’s the description:
“How do you heal from a loss? 15-year-old Olivia lost her childhood best friend, Ricardo, to suicide and is grappling with guilt. He texted her and she didn’t see the signs. Falling into depression, she must find a way to move forward by honoring Ricardo’s pain, her surviving relationships, and her own humanity.”
To facilitate conversations about the film, check out the guides for educators, students, and parents.
Money For Schools To Support Mental Health
Please tell all the teachers you know to apply for funding from Google.org’s Teen Mental Health Initiative. They will help fund the purchase of materials to support students' mental health, from books and art supplies to wobble stools and yoga mats. Teachers can follow these steps and Google.org will fund up to $500 of their requests.
Create a DonorsChoose account
Select specific resources for your classroom
Describe how those resources will support student mental health
Submit your project for approval
Teachers: Get DonorsChoose Credits For Learning About Mental Health!
Here’s an additional offer of support for teachers from Google:
Complete a mental health training on one of the topics below to earn $200 in DonorsChoose credits. Each training is designed to be accessible and take about 20-30 minutes to complete. If you complete one training, you will be rewarded with a $200 gift-code to use with any of DonorsChoose's 16 vendor partners.
While you are eligible to receive only one gift-code, you are encouraged to take more than one training to gain valuable knowledge and learn mental health practices.
Co-Regulation - Supporting Self And Students
Creating an Inclusive Community of Care
Creating Safe Space to Discuss Mental Health
Creating Trauma Sensitive Classrooms - Healing Centered Engagement
Digital Wellbeing - Supporting Students to Create Positive Digital Engagement
Helping Students Develop Healthy Social Media Practices
Identifying and Supporting Students in Distress
Mental Well-being Policies and Programs for Students of Color
Self-Care, Caring for the Caregiver, Tackling Burnout
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