Fighting suicide: Youth council leaders and their supportive adults at the E Malama ‘Ola Workshop on February 20, 2016.
A council of teens and young adults is continuing the peer-to-peer work to reach out to teens contemplating suicide, a concept that began with a three-year pilot program led the University of Hawaiʻi Psychiatry program and community partners. The program has received news coverage recently by The Civil Beat and Ka Leo .
The need for the pilot project was urgent, as the risk for suicide-related behaviors skyrocketed among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adolescents grew to become among the highest in the U.S.
Dr. Deborah Goebert, professor in the John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Jane Chung-Do, assistant professor in the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies, wrote about the success of the pilot last December in the Journal of Health Disparities and Practice. By working with six youth and community organizations that served ethnic minority and rural communities, they adapted for Hawaiʻi the type of youth and community-led interventions that had been proven successful in reducing suicide risk.
Their goal was to develop community awareness activities grounded in each community’s strengths and needs. The hoped-for outcome was to strengthen the community partners and provide meaningful leadership opportunities for youth to serve as role models in their own communities. When the funding for the pilot effort ended in 2014, the concept had taken hold.
“Mental Health America of Hawai`i built upon our shared efforts by stepping up to coordinate the Youth Leadership Council for Suicide Prevention, a big step forward for suicide prevention,” said Dr. Goebert. A council of teens and young adults is continuing the peer-to-peer work to reach out to teens contemplating suicide. Almost 100 teens and young adults are continuing the outreach, supported through a collaboration of those core groups, including:
BRAVEHEART (Oʻahu)
TOPS (Teens On Preventing Suicide)
KLAS-Kauaʻi Leaders Against Suicide
MAUI Kanak-tion
SPAM (Suicide Preventors Across Molokaʻi)
OLA (Onipaʻa, Laulima, Aloha)
SPA (Suicide Prevention Awareness) in Hilo, Hawaiʻi
Suicide is the Leading Cause of Fatal Injury in Hawai’i
The need for intervention, unfortunately, has not dissipated. It has expanded, in fact, given that even younger students — pre-teens — are now contemplating suicide. According to surveys collected by the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, one in eight middle schoolers said they not only thought about committing suicide, but took active steps attempting to end their lives.(Source: 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey)
