CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. The Nature and Scope of Suicide
2. Recognizing the Progressive Development of Suicide
3. Substance Abuse as a Major Contributor to Suicide
4. Suicide Across the Life Span
5. Special Populations and Suicide Risk
6. Prevention and Early Intervention for Suicide and Substance Abuse Problems

Supplements
References
Resources

Holding the Lifeline
A Guide to Suicide Prevention

Crisis Response

Physicians, school counselors, religious leaders, and others share a unique relationship with those at risk for suicide. They are often in a position to help, but the need and/or request for help may be beyond what a helping professional is able to recognize. The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention notes that in the month prior to their suicide, 75 percent of elderly persons had visited a physician.ref Yet, physicians and other key gatekeepers, such as school personnel, religious leaders, police, or others, frequently have no training or experience in identifying individuals at risk or know how to respond to self-destructive behaviors.

Sadly, people pay more attention to a crisis. By its very nature, a crisis attracts a lot of attention due to its magnitude. However, with children and adolescents, as well as with adults in their twenties, there is the opportunity to start small, before problems become huge and overwhelming. This can happen when a problem is prevented from getting out of hand, which also prevents or diminishes the stigma associated with bigger, more noticeable problems. It is much more likely to keep things contained and manageable when a problem is dealt with early. The younger a person is the more behaviorally modifiable their problems are, because the problems are caught early and because there is so much more time to work out effective solutions.