Sos Materials

SOS Video and Discussion Guide

The Friends for Life: Preventing Teen Suicide video serves as the main teaching tool of the SOS Program. The aim of the video is to create a supportive and responsive atmosphere for those youth who may be at risk for depression or suicide by empowering them to recognize the warning signs and seek help. The video is approximately 22 minutes in length and is accompanied by a Discussion Guide that includes topics for classroom discussion led by a school health professional or counselor.

The main help-seeking message of the video is

ACT: Acknowledge, Care, Tell

• Acknowledge that you are seeing the signs of depression or suicide in a friend and that it is serious.
• Care — Let your friend know that you care about him or her, and that you are concerned that he or she needs help you cannot provide.
• Tell a trusted adult, either with your friend or on his or her behalf.

There are two sections to the video:

• Vignettes: Dramatizations of teens who are depressed and may be contemplating suicide and the words and actions others might use to help. Each vignette includes a friend or family member who is trying to help— first the “wrong” way (i.e. trying to talk them out of it, telling them to “snap out of it,” being sworn to secrecy, etc.), and then the “correct” way (i.e. telling them that they are concerned and that they need to speak with a trusted adult to get help).
• Interviews with:
  • Real teenagers who attempted suicide and are now in treatment for depression and doing well, including some of their friends and family members,
  • Friends and family members of suicidal teens, and
  • School-based counselors who explain how to respond to a suicidal or depressed student or to a student’s friend.

The SOS Screening Form (Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression, BSAD)

A brief validated seven-question screening tool for depression is completed and scored by students.

NOTE: Results from the BSAD are not diagnostic, but merely indicate the presence, or absence, of symptoms that are consistent or inconsistent with depression or suicide. Negative responses to the questionnaire do not rule out depression/suicidality and positive responses do not conclusively establish depression/suicidality. A thorough diagnostic evaluation by a healthcare professional is always necessary to determine whether or not there is the presence/absence of depression/suicidality. Parents should be contacted immediately by phone if a student is deemed at-risk for suicide.

Printed Educational Materials for Students

Staff & Parent Training Materials