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Dear Partners,
September features National Suicide Prevention Month and World Suicide Prevention Day.
Any life lost to suicide is devastating, and youth suicide is particularly devastating. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in 2023, 40% of high school students reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 29% experienced poor mental health, and 20% seriously considered attempting suicide within the past year. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors were more common among female, LGBTQ+, and American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth than among other groups. Approximately 53% of female students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness within the past year, 53% of LGBTQ+ students experienced poor mental health within the past 30 days, and 25% of AI/AN students seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Suicide attempts were more common among some groups, with 20% of LGBTQ+ youth, 15% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander youth, 11% of American Indian or Alaska Native youth, 11% of Hispanic youth, and 11% of Multiracial youth reporting a suicide attempt in the past year.
Suicide is preventable. As noted in CSN's Suicide Prevention Fact Sheet, produced in collaboration with the Children's Safety Now Alliance (CSN-A), the following recommendations can prevent youth suicide:
- Restrict access to lethal means
- Promote social support and connectedness, access to health services, and development of interpersonal social-emotional skills
- Train and support providers, hotline workers, practitioners, and caregivers around means of suicide and regular screening for suicide risk
- Use an equity lens to address suicide disparities
More CSN resources with data, risk and protective factors, evidence-based prevention recommendations, and resources to inform Title V agencies' suicide prevention efforts can be found in the newsletter below.
Additionally, resources related to these and other child safety and cross-cutting topics are provided in the newsletter below, with those from our CSN-A partners highlighted in purple.
Please widely share these resources with your networks.
Kindly,
Jennifer Leonardo
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