Dewine

Senator Mike DeWine, R-OH, successfully garnered a Federal budget earmark to bring an evidenced-based youth suicide prevention program free of charge to secondary schools in Ohio.

The SOS Signs of Suicide® Program is a nationally recognized, cost-effective program of mental health screening and suicide prevention, which can be easily implemented by existing school personnel during one or two school periods. SOS is a program of the nonprofit organization, Screening for Mental Health, which has an office in Ohio. The federal funding was used to bring the program free of charge to Ohio schools and to train school personnel on how to implement it.

A widely studied, evidence-based program, SOS is the first suicide prevention program to be selected by SAMHSA for its Registry of Effective Programs. It is the only school-based suicide prevention program that has been shown to reduce suicidality in a randomized, controlled study (American Journal of Public Health, March 2004).

Senator DeWine is a leader in Congress on the topic of youth suicide and was a primary author of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, the first Federal suicide prevention measure.

“I am proud to have secured funding for this very worthy program,” said Senator DeWine, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We know that for every suicide there are between 8 and 25 attempts, indicating early intervention is the key to youth suicide prevention. This proven program will help save the lives of our nation’s teens and young adults by getting them the help they need.”

Ohio Department of Mental Health Director Mike Hogan, Ph.D. said, “We appreciate Senator DeWine’s continued leadership to improve the well-being of children. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens, and reducing youth suicide is a top priority in Ohio’s Suicide Prevention Plan. We are happy to partner with a proven effective program like SOS.”

The main teaching tool of the program is a video that teaches students how to identify symptoms of depression and suicidality in themselves or their friends and encourages help-seeking. The program’s primary objectives are to educate teens that depression is a treatable illness and to equip them to respond to a potential suicide in a friend or family member using the SOS technique. SOS is an action-oriented approach instructing students how to ACT (Acknowledge, Care and Tell) in the face of this mental health emergency. A kit of materials is provided that includes a staff procedure manual and training video, student screening forms, an educational video and discussion guide, and brochures on suicide and depression for students and parents. Since 2000, more than 1,500 schools have implemented the program.

For more information about the SOS program or the outreach described here, call (800) 253-7658, ext. 108 or
Email: Champions @ mentalhealthscreening.org