Introduction
The article of suicide and youth violence prevention explains the myriad of a contemporary tragic event in the United States and the underlying impacts on the existing relationships between thoughts of committing suicide along with a reactive attack on individuals. The explanation of numerous risks and protective approaches to suicidal behaviors help in devising appropriate suicide prevention measures on youths. It describes various problems solving approaches to mental situations along with coping skills towards suicidal thoughts. Similarly, Douglas Fisher asserts that the application of the window into the space of an adolescent. The author proves that there exist other diverse ways of providing literacy education that can effectively act as suicide prevention initiatives. The processes that most students undergo in the initial stages of suicide prevention are explained hence enlightening individuals on the practical approaches of preventing the activity. Markus et al. (1999) also reveal the prospective that explains the underlying parental receipt that prevents suicidal decisions and thoughts on youths. The article guides parents on how to educate their children on effective measures of limiting access to lethal ways and actions for appropriate means of solving dilemma situations. Also, the logistic regressions that parents use in determining the likelihood of emerging actions of individual supporters are presented as helpful in limiting the access to various lethal equipment of committing suicide.
Prevention of Youth Suicide
Various ways of preventing suicide exist in different stages of life. The contemporary results of the national trends in the cases of youth suicides have increasingly become common hence causing the need to devise appropriate suicide prevention strategies. Suicides in the U.S.A are estimated at 500,000 per year for ages 15 to 25 (Keri & James, 2005). Of the 500,000, only 5,000 succeeded in attempting to suicides; a killer ranked at position four of the leading causes of death. (Keri & James, 2005) National Center for Health Statistics documents that 80% of those the victims usually show signs before committing the suicides (Keri & James, 2005). The major causes of suicides include problems with coping skills, family problems, including family disputes and incidences of domestic violence, bullying, prejudice, and intolerance.
School going teens and even young adults are likely to commit suicide (Keri & James, 2005). However, signs of suicides may be seen before the actual incident occurs. Some known indicators of suicide include individuals talking about committing suicide, eating and sleeping behavior change, isolation and withdrawal from family and close friends, loss of interest in one's self, elevated levels on drug and alcohol intake, and individual talking about death in most of his or her conversations (Keri & James, 2005). Research has it that depression is the main sign and cause of suicides in school-going children.
All the causes of suicide are a factor of depression. Sexual orientation and sexuality of individuals can also contribute immensely to depression and, if not checked, lead to suicides. Garafalo et al. (1999) state that most students who are gay, lesbians, bisexuals, and those with no clear boundaries of their sexual orientation have high chances of committing suicides. Bullying accompanied with sexuality issues is a time bomb for many youths with sexual orientation issues. It is documented that most school-going teens are at risk of bullying from their peers when the other children learn that they are not straight or have problems with their sexuality.
Schools play a role in understanding and minimizing the case of suicides in teenagers.
Through policies and cooperation with other stakeholders, the prevalence of suicide is likely to be eliminated. Teachers form a large part of the inner circle that is tasked with dealing with these cases. To do this best, teachers are expected to evaluate programs developed for violence or suicide prevention and equip themselves with the relevant skills needed to handle such cases. For effectiveness purposes, teachers ought to integrate the suicide prevention approaches into their teaching activities in a way that does not do more harm to the target group (Keri & James, 2005). By recommending both short and long term prevention strategies, schools aim to understand suicide in both personal and interpersonal levels.
Strategies developed to reduce the rates of suicides include the integration of suicide impact studies into the curriculum. Teachers are advised to incorporate these lessons in an attempt to understand and pass knowledge to their students on the implications of suicides. Talking to students about their perception of this menace helps gauge their level of understanding of the matter. Teachers are advised to do this by issuing notebooks to their students and encouraging them to jot down their feelings and experiences on any subject that affects them in all aspects of life; social and emotional.
Reading of these notebooks will help teachers evaluate the state of their students. It is proven that emotions are best manifested through writing, and with this fact at hand, teachers will know which of the students are depressed or faced with a challenge that needs counseling. For instance, exposure of students to reading materials, for example, books encouraging them to talk about their feelings, is a strategy worth emulating. Students can best express themselves when exposed to stimuli that direct them to talk about their feelings to others. Books such as 'Life Is Funny' can form a basis through which emotions can be understood better.
Parental care is vital in addressing the suicide issue. Parents and other caregivers should be equipped with injury protection information. Information of such manner is essential as it allows parents the time to evaluate and understand the dangers of keeping weapons in places that can be accessed by children. In a case study, we note that granting access to firearms to children can lead to their deaths and others. The case of Nghiem's suicide sheds light on the impacts of leaving weapons exposed and in reach of the students. Swedo et al. (1991) documents that teenagers and young children using Emergency Departments for mental health are at a higher risk of suicide and are undistinguished from those who have attempted the actual suicide.
The extension of concepts used in means restriction education to violence eradication and prevention rather than limiting its effects are in terms of suicides should be seriously studied. Parents are advised to take these studies to enable them to understand the best ways to approach such suicide incidences when they occur. Putting away of weapons is so far the better way of limiting injury and suicides by lethal weapons.
Proper storage and having minimal contact with the weapons ensures that children and other people as well are safe. In a study about the safety of children, the majority of the respondents were for the locking up of firearms where children cannot access them. Disposal of the weapons was proposed as another method that parents can use to protect their children, but few were for it. The government, through its agencies, has provided avenues through which homes can be made safe. Disposing of unwanted or excess firearms to the government's custody is the best method to protect children from injury and unnecessary suicide attempts.
In the same research, trained parents opted to take matters into their own hands and limit firearms usage. 70% of parents preferred storing their guns unloaded in places that can be accessed (Fisher, 2005). Deductions from the study note that many households have firearms stored in open areas. According to our research, this is detrimental and a catalyst for violence, which may turn to suicides.
Inviting speakers to forums that tend to discuss the contemporary issues faced by students is essential since these people have the skills and knowledge on how to handle such talks (Fisher, 2005). Speakers usually are tasked with bringing out the disadvantages of suicides and helping students understand the underlying truth about the detrimental effects of depression and not sharing pressing emotional issues. In so doing, speakers, after their speeches and motivations, issue tasks to students from which they will access and evaluate answers provided by the students in the view of identifying alerts and cases of depression. They would then liaise with the teachers concerned and help salvage the situation before it ends up in deaths or even injuries.
On balance, feedback is key to addressing suicide issues. The speakers can act as counselors, and with the help of teachers, students can be saved. Students are encouraged to report any problem of suicide thoughts and attempts. It is a strategy from which schools aim at limiting instances of life loss and curbing the growing number of cases of suicide.
Summary
It is the role of all stakeholders to make sure that cases of suicides are done away with or limited if total elimination cannot be achieved. Through cooperation with other concerned agencies, schools are on the frontline to make sure that this is achieved. Understanding the causes of suicides is crucial in combatting it.
Depression, as research states, is the number one cause of suicides. Depression may originate from many sources. School going children and the young adults may find it hard to cope with frustrations and, in turn, resolve to suicides. Known causes of the menace include difficulty in comprehending sexual orientations and rejection due to the same, family conflicts, bullying, and emotional distress emanating from domestic violence. Mental illness is also a trigger of suicides.
