-
Using Big Data Analytics to Predict and Prevent Mental Health Crises
In recent years, mental health crises and suicide rates have surged across America. This concerning trend spans demographics, with 11.5% of youth (over 2.7 million people) reporting severe major depression and 20.78% of adults (over 50 million people) facing some form of mental illness. The...
-
CDC Report: Why Schools Are Crucial for Youth Suicide Prevention
Our schools have the power to be one of the strongest allies in protecting the mental health of our youth. With growing concerns about suicide prevention, the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report from the CDC underscores the urgent need for proactive measures. Schools...
-
No Judgment. Just Help: What You Can Do to Support Suicide Prevention Month Efforts
Ask almost anyone about suicide, and you’ll likely find they have been personally impacted by the loss – or near loss – of a loved one. It’s perhaps not surprising given the statistics. In 2022 alone, more than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide, the highest number ever...
-
Chronic Pain, Quality of Life, and Suicidal Behavior
In the mid-1970s, Quality of Life (QOL) was identified as a key medical concept (Berlim and Fleck, 2003). Readily adopted in oncology, the concept spread through different fields of medicine and eventually to psychiatry. Many tools were developed to take QOL from a subjective concept to a...
-
Suicide in Adolescents: Warning Signs, Risk Factors, and What Parents Can Do to Support Their Teens
Suicidality can affect all age groups, including during the adolescent years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2023). The CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (2023) reported data concerning U.S. high school students’...
-
Preventing Suicide: Addressing Trauma-Related Symptoms in Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
The incidence of mental illness is pervasive in the United States, a recent estimate suggesting it impacts more than one in five adults (NIMH, 2023). While “mental illness” is a category that embodies all diagnoses, a subset of this category, serious mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia spectrum...
-
Understanding and Detecting the Signs of Serious Mental Illness and Suicidal Ideation
Serious mental illness and suicidal ideation are two of the largest problems in American healthcare today. In fact, while one-in-five American adults have any mental illness, approximately 1 in 20 adults in the U.S. are affected by serious mental illness, or a mental illness that significantly...
-
The Evolution of the 988 Lifeline: A Year After the Transition
On July 16, 2022, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline announced the transition of the former 1-800-273-TALK (8255) phone number to 988, an easy-to-remember three digit-number for 24/7 crisis care across the United States and its territories. A year after the transition, the 988 Suicide...
-
Suicide Risk and Safety Planning
Behavioral health workers are understandably distressed by the recent rise in the rates of suicide, suicide attempts, and reported suicidal ideation, including increases among teens and young adults, minorities, and those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (Molock et al, 2023; Pathirathna et al,...
-
Black Men and Mental Health: Practical Solutions
It's no secret that black men face a unique set of circumstances in our world; economic, healthcare, and educational disparities, systemic racism, and social injustice. These factors create a world where it seems Black men's lives are rarely valued, much less their thoughts and feelings. This has...
