Contents

Resources

Preventing Youth Suicide

Welcome

Suicidal behaviour among youth, including thoughts, attempts and completions, is a serious concern in British Columbia and in other parts of the country. Child and youth mental health practitioners in collaboration with other allied human service providers have an important role to play in the prevention of suicide and suicidal behaviour among youth. The purpose of this site is to provide users with high-quality, up-to-date information on the topic of youth suicide prevention.

Intended Audience

The material that has been assembled here has been written specifically for child and youth mental health practitioners working in British Columbia, however it will be of relevance to a range of youth-serving practitioners, social care and health providers, Aboriginal practitioners and leaders, school personnel, and members of the media who are interested in making a productive and informed contribution to the overall youth suicide prevention agenda in this province.

The information contained here is not meant to replace existing Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD) policy nor is it to be interpreted as the standard of care for treating suicidal youth.

It is important to recognize that this site is not a crisis response service. If you or someone you care about is currently in crisis, call 1-800-SUICIDE or visit the following websites for on-line emotional support Youth in BC or Youthspace.

Overview

A range of content will be included on this website including: background information about suicide, statistics, links to on-line resources, recommended readings, example protocols, research informed recommendations for working with youth at risk for suicide and guidelines for responding in the aftermath of a youth suicide.

Given the vast array of published and unpublished material available on the topic of youth suicide prevention, some limits had to be set on what could be included here. The intent of this site is to briefly acquaint users with research-informed guidelines and recommendations for designing a comprehensive, community-level youth suicide prevention strategy and to direct users to additional resources and sites for more in-depth information.

Numerous prevention, clinical intervention and postvention approaches - which are located along a prevention continuum and aimed at different target audiences - are introduced. Each approach is described under a new heading and a brief commentary about the level of empirical support is provided. The rationale, core characteristics and guiding principles underlying each approach are included in the brief description. Implementation ideas and tools are included wherever possible. Given the uneven development of practical tools and resources in the field of suicide prevention, not every section will have the same level of coverage and detail. Examples of how communities in British Columbia are implementing these approaches in their own local contexts are described in a few specific sections. References to the published literature and links to related sites are provided at the end of each section and users are encouraged to go to these sources for more detailed information.

For practitioners who are interested in quickly accessing practice tools and risk assessment guidelines, click on “At-a-Glance Tools”. Key challenges facing community-based suicide prevention planners, including issues related to rural and remote practice, ethical and legal issues, practicing in a culturally safe way, and responding to a client suicide, are all briefly discussed under the tab “Unique Challenges”.