Managing Suicidal Thoughts Kind, Practical Help from Rethink Mental Illness

Firstly, the scope of the review, which focuses on the last 7 years, excludes studies published prior to 2016 in order to identify updated research. Unfortunately, this variety limits the possibility of drawing reliable conclusions about the efficacy of this group of interventions, so more research is needed to better evaluate family therapies. Furthermore, the great heterogeneity in results may reflect the variety of interventions included in this group. An important commonality of family therapies is that all of them recruited adolescents with a parent or caregiver willing to participate. In contrast to previously described therapeutic interventions, family-focused therapies constitute a widely heterogeneous group. However, subsequent studies testing SPRC Recover Together resources MBT-A obtained similar results to control treatments 30, 32, 33.

• To make suicide prevention programs more accessible, North Carolina inventoried programs in the state that are involved in suicide prevention and created a searchable public-facing map.
• Prevent Suicide Wisconsin (PSW), convened by Mental Health America of Wisconsin, leads the state’s suicide prevention programming through a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
• Additionally, it updates the literature by including recent studies on the role of digital technologies in prevention.
• It may be that the 24-hour behavioral warning signs for suicide attempts, including suicidal communications and withdrawal from others and activities, are most useful in this regard due to the difficulty of observing the adolescents’ thoughts and feelings.
• Whilst previous reviews have synthesized this evidence, many only include RCTs .

National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA

Childhood sexual abuse differentially predicts outcome of cognitive-behavioral therapy for deliberate self-harm. Emotion regulation as mediator of treatment outcome in therapy for deliberate self-harm. Secondary prevention of non-fatal deliberate self-harm. Six were secondary publications that were included as they reported novel data , , , , , .

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It was also found that in children and adolescents that reported using social media had significantly greater predicted odds of self-injurious behaviors at the time of admission to the emergency department . Access to firearms increases the likelihood of death by suicide for children and adolescents more than fourfold due to its increased lethality, with 90% of child and adolescent suicides by gun involving firearms from the victim’s own home or that of a relative . The joint statement highlights the importance of recognizing suicide risk and the need for increased funding to address the issue.

Strategies for Community and School Settings for Youth Suicide Prevention

View our extensive library of over 2,000 articles for vital mental health and substance use disorder education, information, support, advocacy, and quality resources Learn how AI, technology, and operational support help private practice clinicians reduce burnout, stay independent, and sustain behavioral health care. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline handled over 8 million contacts in 2025 as new federal funding aims to expand access to life-saving mental health support. Preferences for handling mental health issues independently may vary across different contexts; therefore, it is essential to be culturally aware and competent in addressing the sociocultural factors at play. Many mental health issues among youth may go unnoticed or undiagnosed. Understanding that interventions like traditional therapy, which were common 20 years ago, may not resonate as much with today’s youth is pivotal.

For suicide prevention efforts to be effective, they must go beyond traditional clinical settings and reach those who have not been diagnosed or have not yet received the appropriate treatment (Ertl et al., 2020). A 2017 study (Ertl, Crosby, & Blair, 2020) found that, disproportionately, female youth exhibit the highest rates of nonfatal suicidal behaviors, while male youth have the highest completed suicide death rates. Fortunately, the funding of suicide prevention research has grown substantially in recent years , including for high priority needs such as understanding and preventing Black youth suicide among Black youth 56, 57, 58.