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Release: March 3, 2004
Contact: Joelle Reizes, 513-683-1599
HIGH SCHOOL SUICIDE PREVENTION PROGRAM
REDUCES SUICIDE ATTEMPTS BY FORTY PERCENT;
SOS Program First to Show Reduction in Suicidal Behavior
The SOS High School Suicide Prevention Program reduced suicide attempts by 40%
in high school students exposed to the program, according to a paper in today’s
American Journal of Public Health. The SOS program is the first school-based
suicide prevention program to show a reduction in suicidal behavior in a
randomized controlled study. SOS is a program of the non-profit organization,
Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
“What makes this program unique is that it is the first time in
twenty years of research on school-based suicide prevention programs that we
have seen this type of effect on suicidal behavior,” says study lead author
Robert Aseltine, Ph.D. of the University of Connecticut Health Center.
Dr. Aseltine, along with co-author Robert DeMartino, MD, of the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, studied five high schools in Hartford, CT and
Columbus, GA with a total of 2100 students. The students were randomly assigned
to intervention and control groups. Self-administered questionnaires were
completed by students in both groups approximately three months after program
implementation.
Researchers observed significantly lower rates of suicide attempts as well as
greater knowledge and more adaptive attitudes about depression and suicide in
the intervention group.
“Our analysis suggests that a substantial portion of the effect of
the SOS program on selfreported suicide attempts may be explained by improving
the subjects’ understanding and attitudes about depression and suicide,” says
Dr. Aseltine.
The SOS program was also recently designated as a “promising program” by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), becoming
the only suicide prevention program selected for its National Registry of
Effective Programs (NREP).
The SOS program was developed with assistance from, and is endorsed by, leading
schoolbased professionals’ organizations including the National Association of
School Psychologists, American School Counselor Association, National
Association of School Nurses, National Association of Secondary School
Principals, among others.
Susan Gorin, CAE, National Association of School Psychologists Executive
Director says, “NASP endorses the SOS program because it works. Our members see
it working and the research backs that up. Schools across the nation should
take notice. Saving a student’s life could take as little as one class period.”
One unique feature of the SOS program is that it combines two
suicide prevention strategies into one program by combining depression
screening with an educational program about suicide and mental illness.
Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General, highlighted the SOS program
when he rolled out the National Strategy to Prevent Suicide in May, 2001.
The program is designed to be easily replicable in a variety of school
settings, using existing school personnel. Typically, it is implemented during
one or two classroom periods. The program teaches high school students to
respond to the signs of suicide as a mental health emergency, much as one would
react to a heart attack as a health emergency. It teaches youths how to
recognize the signs of suicide and depression in themselves and others and the
specific action steps needed to respond to those signs. The goal is to make the
action step — ACT — as instinctual a response as the Heimlich maneuver and as
familiar an acronym as “CPR.” ACT stands for Acknowledge, Care, and Tell.
First, ACKNOWLEDGE the signs of suicide that others display and take them
seriously. Next, let that person know you CARE about him or her and that you
want to help. Then, TELL a responsible adult.
Screening for Mental Health, the nonprofit group that created the SOS program,
is well known in the mental health field for its landmark program, National
Depression Screening Day® and felt it could adapt some of the techniques used
in the community-based program to provide an evidence-based, cost effective
turn-key program for schools.
SMH’s Executive Director and founder, Douglas G. Jacobs, MD, is a nationally
renowned suicidologist and has had a long interest in working to prevent
suicide.
“The SOS program gives young people a ‘mental health check-up’ as
well as the knowledge to recognize depression when it occurs in themselves or a
friend at any time in their lives,” says Jacobs, an Associate Clinical
Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “It is important to convince
our youth that suicide is a tragic, permanent solution to a temporary
condition. That condition is usually depression or a related disorder, which is
treatable.”
Since 2000, the program has been implemented in more than 1300 schools across
the country. The cost to schools is less than 40 cents per student.
Screening for Mental Health is based in Wellesley Hills, MA. For
more information contact, 781- 239-0071 or www.mentalhealthscreening.org.
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Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
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