SAMHSA Releases New Toolkit on Suicide Prevention in High Schools

Suicide is one of the nation’s greatest public health problems – but it is also completely preventable. If all of us work together in an effort to reach out and help those at risk we can prevent the needless devastation suicide brings to individuals, loved ones and communities across the nation.
In order to provide practical help in this effort the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a new toolkit entitled Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools. The toolkit aims at reducing the risk of suicide among high school students by providing research-based guidelines and resources to assist school administrators, principals, mental health professionals, health educators, guidance counselors, nurses, student services coordinators, teachers and others identify teenagers at risk and take appropriate measures to provide help.
The tool kit offers information on screening tools, warning signs and risk factors of suicide, statistics, and parent education materials.

It is based on years of experience in promoting suicide prevention in high schools across the nation. It draws upon the key elements of these programs and makes them easily adaptable to any high school setting. In addition, it provides high schools with useful information on the many federal, state and community program that are available to help bolster their suicide prevention efforts.

The post above is reprinted with permission from the SAMHSA blog.