It was exciting to deliver the first Preventure manuals for our pilot starting in the fall. We hear about the NIH grant in June 2018. One of the recommendations from the CDC was to teach coping and problem solving skills and promote social connectedness, two things this program does.
The reason they cited problem-solving skills was that while treating mental illness is key to prevention, about half were not diagnosed with a mental illness and other life stressors were contributing factors of a suicide. e.g. relationship problems, physical health problems, substance use disorder, legal problems.
While the evidence-based Preventure program is focused on life skills training targeted to four personality traits that have shown predisposition to addiction, I like that it really is focused on traits that have show the potential to sabotage quality of life, that create relationship problems, and can lead to high risk behavior including suicide.
Three of the four are mental health traits. Traits are: sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, negative thinking and impulsiveness.
CDC recommendations for suicide prevention
Prevention strategies include
- Strengthening economic supports (e.g., housing stabilization policies, household financial support)
- Teaching coping and problem-solving skills to manage everyday stressors and prevent future relationship problems, especially early in life
- Promoting social connectedness to increase a sense of belonging and access to informational, tangible, emotional, and social support
- Identifying and better supporting persons at risk (e.g., military veterans, persons with physical/mental health conditions)
Other strategies include
- Creating protective environments (e.g., reducing access to lethal means among persons at risk for suicide such as keeping firearms locked up.)
- Creating organizational and workplace policies to promote help-seeking, easing transitions into and out of work for persons with mental health conditions and other life challenges
- Strengthening access to and delivery of care
- Supporting family and friends after a suicide
- Encouraging the media to follow safe reporting recommendations
I mourn what those boys could’ve done.
I know. We are losing so many who would have had such fabulous contributions
Congratulations!!! This is wonderful.
Thank you Amy. I am pretty excited.
You go girl – such good work. I’m hangin out with you – you get it done.
I have a question – two people have asked me about this, this week. I seem to think it’s somewhat true.
Are personality types more predisposed? Think of the writers, creatives, and thinkers that have died by suicide. Our sons fit into that category…
Ernest Hemingway, Robin Williams, Kate Spade, Sylvia Plath, Hunter Thompson, Virginia Woolf, Kurt Cobain, Alexander McQueen, L’Wren Scott, et etc.
I know all of them had other underlying issues, but they have this in common.
Yes. Our creative genius comes with those tendencies. The Preventure study focuses mainly on mental health and addiction. When it is introduced the whole high school benefits because the kids that take it influence the rest of the population.
On a personal note when I went up to see Charles at his therapeoboardkbg school the level of creative talent was way above that if any ‘normal’ small high school. They had a kid that could sing opera who was truly magnificent. Surly withdrawn and suffering multiple ways yet his talent was unsurpassable. He did perform at the met. They also had an art show. It was like walking through a high end gallery other than they didn’t have the framing and other materials at their disposal. Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh….
So this program is all about shifting that personality to success instead of self medication and other high risk behaviors because those personalities are also ones that are our best humanitarians, most gifted actors and innovative entrepreneurs