By Alyson Sulaski Wyckoff, American Academy of Pediatrics, March 13, 2021
More than 130 Americans will take their lives today. High school students will make over 3,700 attempts to kill themselves.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals ages 10-34 years — representing 425 deaths a year. Yet most health care settings are not screening for this risk. Improved training is needed on early identification of suicide risk, assessment, follow-up and counseling.
Those were among recommendations at the recent Virtual Summit on Youth Suicide Prevention co-hosted by the AAP, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Participants included experts in psychiatry, education, pediatrics, family medicine, research and epidemiology. They discussed ways to identify and address suicide risk, the evidence base for suicide prevention, access to lethal means, impact of media and the value of partnerships.
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