Schools use peer programs to prevent suicide
- Suicide is the third leading cause of death among U.S. adolescents.
- Teens tend to confide in and reveal signs of suicide to peers rather than adults.
- Wood County schools are teaching students to recognize signs of suicide in their classmates and react to prevent death or self-harm.
- Students are being encouraged to participate in community-wide suicide prevention efforts.
Editor’s note: This is the second story in a four-part series on suicide and suicide prevention. Thefirst part, published Sept. 3, focused on how mental health and public health officials are addressing the problem of suicide in Wood County. Subsequent stories will cover mental health research and recovery for families of suicide victims and individuals who have attempted suicide. September is National Suicide Prevention Month.
The warning signs are present in most youths who commit or attempt suicide — withdrawing from friends, extracurricular activities and social media; a drop in school performance; giving away possessions or comments about ending one’s life.
But teens don’t often confide in adults, or the warning signs might be looked upon as delinquency behavior, causing teens’ mental health struggles to sometimes go unnoticed, Wood County Human Services treatment services manager Randall Ambrosius said.
“We have to look at some of the symptoms more carefully,” Ambrosius said. He said adolescents often report feeling overwhelmed, dealing with more stress than ever before in their lives, and while those stressors might seem minor to adults, they can be very difficult for teens to handle.
Valentina Pacheco, a psychiatry fellow at Marshfield Clinic, said some teens try to mask stress and depression in order to maintain their reputation. She told the story of one Chicago teen — a popular, A student — whose suicide shocked her family and friends.
“To be the person who was vulnerable and confided in someone wasn’t in the role that she took on,” Pacheco said.
“I don’t think that’s the majority. It’s not common for a person not to say something.”
Adolescents are more likely to share their problems with peers than adults, which is why suicide prevention programs are teaching teens to recognize risk factors and know when to share concerns about a friend or classmate with an adult.
“One of the reasons students go to peers to confide is because they think the peer is more trustworthy, ... and they think adults can’t do anything for them,” Pacheco said.
Peer training
Pacheco said teens often keep it to themselves when a peer expresses suicidal intent because they fear losing friends, or they aren’t trained to recognize the seriousness of the situation, which is why local students will participate in the Sources of Strength program this school year.
Sources of Strength is a school-based program that trains peer leaders to recognize suicide signs and seek help from a trained adult.
“We need to change the culture within schools and the social norms around help-seeking behavior,” she said.
About 50 student leaders, selected based on their ability to influence their classmates, and five adult advisers will be trained in the program by the end of November. Students also will complete surveys at the beginning and end of the school year to evaluate how the program has impacted suicide prevention knowledge.
Pacheco said research has shown students are four times more likely to get help for a classmate demonstrating signs of suicide after participating in the program.
The goal of the program is to reduce the number of students who attempt or consider suicide and improve help-seeking behaviors. Pacheco said she will consider the program a success if it saves the life of even one student.
Nekoosa middle and high school students participate in Question, Persuade, Refer, or QPR, suicide prevention training. Students learn how to recognize suicide signs, ask direct questions to determine if someone is considering suicide and listen to the answers, persuade the person to stay alive and get help for the person.
Rod Winters, guidance counselor at the Alexander Middle School in Nekoosa, said discussion of suicide signs includes indicators on social media sites popular among students. The training has generated awareness and conversation about suicide prevention in the schools in each of the two years it has been implemented, he said.
QPR training isn’t just beneficial for adolescents, added Katie Peters, family/community outreach coordinator for the Nekoosa School District. She said the stigma surrounding suicide makes it a difficult subject for people of all ages, and parents, business owners and older adults can benefit from being trained to help when a friend or family member is considering suicide. QPR training is offered through the Wood County Health Department.
Involvement in community suicide prevention efforts
Because suicide is a community concern, Nekoosa students and residents have been invited to attend to participate in the World Cafe, a community discussion about mental health and suicide organized by Healthy People Nekoosa.
“The goal of this is to build capacity throughout the group and have equal ownership of suicide prevention throughout the community,” Peters said.
The event will take place Oct. 30 at the Nekoosa Community Center. Residents from the area of all ages are encouraged to take a mental health survey, available online on the Nekoosa School District website, which will facilitate discussion at the World Cafe. Guests at the event will participate in a series of guided discussions about survey topics, including access to mental health services, suicide, depression and stress.
“We want to find out what information the community is seeking about this topic,” Winters said. Information gathered at the World Cafe will drive future suicide prevention efforts in Nekoosa.
The World Cafe event is open to anyone interested in suicide prevention and could be used as a model to start a discussion about suicide in other communities, Winters said.
Peters said a World Cafe for Nekoosa High School students is in the works.
Eight Nekoosa High School students also will attend the Healthy People Wood County Mental Health Conference being held Oct. 3 in Marshfield. The conference is open to anyone interested in reducing the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
More on adolescent suicide
Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for individuals ages 10 to 24. However, many more young people attempt suicide than actually die.
Nationwide in 2013, 16 percent of high school students reported seriously considering suicide in the past year, 13 percent created a plan to commit suicide and 8 percent attempted suicide, according to YRBS data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report showed almost 25 percent of Wisconsin high schoolers reported feeling sad or hopeless during the 12 months before the survey, 13 percent has seriously considered suicide, 12 percent had made a plan and 6 percent attempted suicide.
Among students at Marshfield high schools, 21 percent reported sad or hopeless feelings, 12 percent had considered suicide and 6 percent had attempted suicide. Recent YRBS data was not available for other Wood County school districts.
Two adolescent suicides were reported in Wood County in 2013. None were reported in 2012 or to date in 2014.
Reporter Marisa Cuellar can be reached at 715-384-3131. Find her on Twitter as @cuellm34.
How to get help
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the 24/7 Crisis Intervention Hotline:
• 715-421-2345 in Wisconsin Rapids
• 715-384-5555 in Marshfield
How to help others
QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Training is a free hour-long suicide prevention training offered through the Wood County Health Department. For more information, email DaNita Carlson at dcarlson@co.wood.wi.us.
More information about mental health and suicide
Healthy People Wood County Mental Health Conference
• Oct. 3; registration begins at 7:15 a.m., conference 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County, 2000 W. Fifth St., Marshfield
To register, visit http://marshfield.uwc.edu/continuing-ed/conferences. The cost is $75 and includes morning snacks, lunch and materials. The deadline to register is Sept. 24.
Healthy People Nekoosa World Cafe
• 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Nekoosa Community Center, 416 Crestview Lane
• Mental health survey available at www.nekoosasd.net.