Mental Health - Youth Attempted Suicide

Why Is This Important?

In NM in 2019, suicide was the leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 12 and 18. In the U.S. in 2019, according to the CDC, suicide was the second leading cause of death for this same age group. While girls are more likely than boys to attempt suicide, boys are more likely to die of suicide. A previous suicide attempt is among the strongest risk factors for completed suicide.

Definition

Percentage of students grades 9-12 in a NM public school who reported attempting suicide at least one time, in the past 12 months. The NM Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS) is administered in odd years and is part of the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), which is coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Each state, territorial, tribal, and large urban school district participating in YRBS employs a two-stage, cluster sample design to produce a representative sample of students in grades 9-12 in its jurisdiction. In the first sampling stage, in all except a few sites, schools are selected with probability proportional to school enrollment size. In the second sampling stage, intact classes of a required subject or intact classes during a required period (e.g., second period) are selected randomly. All students in sampled classes are eligible to participate. A weight is applied to each student record to adjust for student nonresponse and the distribution of students by grade, sex, and race/ethnicity in each jurisdiction.

Data Sources

• U.S. data source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data
  (https://nccd.cdc.gov/Youthonline)
• New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, New Mexico Department of Health and Public Education Department.

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

The percentage of NM high school students who attempted suicide has increased from 8.6% in 2011 to 10.5% in 2019.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

The percentage of US high school students who attempted suicide has risen slowly since 2009. There is no significant difference between the 2019 NM rate (10.5%) and the US rate (8.9%).

What Is Being Done?

The NM Department of Health continues to analyze and share data, reports and presentations with each year of completed YRRS surveys. School administrators and youth health advocates utilize this information to guide health promotion and treatment programs for youth in NM. Youth suicide prevention and intervention activities were initially funded by the NM Legislature in June 2005. Implementation of suicide prevention strategies statewide is a significant focus of the NM Department of Health's Office of School and Adolescent Health (OSAH). Suicide prevention activities include: 1) Providing funding for statewide crisis line response to people at risk for suicide. 2) Identifying and developing relationships with existing crisis line operators statewide to enhance statewide suicide crisis response capacity. 3) Raising awareness that suicide is a public health problem and supporting initiatives to decrease stigma surrounding mental health issues. 4) Ensuring screening, early identification, referral and follow-up for suicide risk through Student Health Questionnaires for each student who accesses school-based health centers (SBHC). 5) Offering intensive training and technical assistance for all school-based health centers surrounding identification of signs of suicide, suicide prevention and crisis response planning. 6) Gatekeeper training for educators, Medical and Behavioral Health providers, community members and youth; Natural Helper Programs; implementation and support for Gay-Straight Alliances; intensive training for school nurses; and psychiatric consultation for school counselors and school-based health center providers. 7) Providing School Health Updates, Head to Toe Conference and other regional trainings to increase awareness and knowledge of the risk factors and warning signs of suicide among school counselors, school health personnel, and behavioral health providers on suicide, crisis response and grief and trauma support in the school setting.

Evidence-based Practices

In 2021, the Surgeon General released a "National Strategy for Suicide Prevention". The plan identified six strategies: 1. Activate a broad-based public health response to suicide: Broaden perspectives of suicide, who is effected, and the many factors that can affect suicide risk. Empower every organization and individual to play a role in suicide prevention. Engage people with lived experience in all aspects of suicide prevention. Use effective communication to engage diverse sectors in suicide prevention. 2. Address upstream factors that impact suicide: Promote and enhance social connectedness and opportunities to contribute. Strengthen economic supports. Engage and support high-risk and underserved groups. 3. Ensure lethal means safety: Empower communities to implement proven approaches around firearms and poisonings. Increase the use of lethal means safety counseling. 4. Support adoption of evidence-based care for suicide risk: Increase clinical training in evidence-based care for suicide risk. Improve suicide risk identification in health care settings. Conduct safety planning for with all patients who screen positive for suicide risk. Increase the use of suicide safe care pathways in health care systems for individuals at risk. Increase the use of caring contacts in diverse settings. 5. Enhance crisis care and transition services: Increase development and use of statewide or regional crisis service hubs. Increase the use of mobile crisis teams. Increase the use of crisis receiving and stabilizing facilities. Ensure safe care transitions for patients at risk. Ensure safe care transitions for patients at risk. Ensure adequate crisis infrastructure to support implementation of the national 988 number. 6. Improve the quality, timeliness, and use of suicide-related data: Increase access to near real-time data related to suicide. Improve the quality of data on causes of death. Improve coordination and sharing of suicide-related data across the federal, state, and local levels. Use multiple data sources to identify groups at risk and inform action. *** Read the full report here: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sprc-call-to-action.pdf ***

Other Objectives

Substance Abuse Epidemiology Report Indicator, Mental Health Report Indicator, New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI), New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI)

Available Services

If you or someone you know is in a life-threatening position, please call 911 To talk to a counselor or ask questions about treatment 24/7, call the New Mexico Crisis Line: 1-855-NMCRISIS (662-7474) If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call one of the following hotlines to talk to someone: -New Mexico Crisis Line: 1-855-NMCRISIS (662-7474) -National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/): 1-800-273-TALK (8255). En Espaol: 1-888-628-9495 -Teen to Teen Peer Counseling Hotline: 1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454) -Native Youth Crisis Hotline: 1-877-209-1266 -Veterans Peer Support Line: 1-877-Vet2Vet (1-800-877-838-2838) -University of New Mexico Agora Crisis Line (http://www.unm.edu/~agora/): 505-277-3013 or 1-866-HELP-1-NM -Graduate Student Hotline: 1-800-GRADHLP (1-800-472-3457) -Postpartum Depression Hotline: 1-800-PPD-MOMS (1-800-773-6667) To see if you or your child attends a school with a school-based health center, please visit: http://www.nmasbhc.org/SBHC_Locator.html If you would like to seek treatment, please contact: -PullTogether.org (https://pulltogether.org): 1-800-691-9067 -New Mexico Children, Youth & Families Department (https://cyfd.org) at 1-505-827-8008 -The SKY Center (http://nmsip.org/): 1-505-473-6191 -SHARE New Mexico Resource Directory: https://www.sharenm.org/nm-resources -United Way Central New Mexico Referral Service (https://uwcnm.org/211): 505-245-1735 Resources for veterans and their families: https://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help/veterans For contact information for your local New Mexico Core Service Agency, please visit: https://newmexico.networkofcare.org/mh/index.aspx

More Resources

For more information about the NM YRRS, please visit http://youthrisk.org/ For more information about the CDC YRBSS, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Suicide Prevention Facts and Resources: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/index.html Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Suicide Prevention Facts and Resources: http://www.samhsa.gov/suicide-prevention World Health Organization Suicide Prevention Facts and Resources: http://www.who.int/topics/suicide/en/ National Indian Child Welfare Association Youth Suicide Prevention Toolkit: https://www.sprc.org/resources-programs/ensuring-seventh-generation-youth-suicide-prevention-toolkit-tribal-child-welfare SAMHSA Suicide Prevention Toolkit for High Schools: http://store.samhsa.gov/product/SMA12-4669 ZeroSuicide.org: https://zerosuicide.org Honoring Native Life: https://hsc.unm.edu/medicine/departments/psychiatry/cbh/hnl/ Suicide Prevention Resource Center: www.sprc.org

Health Program Information

The YRRS is a tool to assess the health risk behaviors and resiliency (protective) factors of NM high school and middle school students. The YRRS is part of the national CDC YRBSS, but the survey results have widespread benefits for NM at the state, county, and school district levels. Topic areas for the YRRS include risk behaviors related to alcohol and drug use, unintentional injury, violence, suicidal ideation and attempts, tobacco use, sexual activity, physical activity, and nutrition; resiliency (protective) factors such as relationships in the family, school, community, and with peers; and health status issues such as body weight and asthma. The YRRS is administered to a sample of high schools and middle schools in each school district in the fall of odd-numbered years. All data are self-reported by students who voluntarily complete the survey during one class period. NM Department of Health, Office of School and Adolescent Health Youth Suicide Prevention Program Coordinator: Nancy Kirkpatrick, 505-222-8683 NM Department of Health, Epidemiology and Response Division, Mental Health Epidemiologist: Dylan Pell, 505-476-1440, dylan.pell@state.nm.us

Footnote References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html on Mar 18, 2021 3:54:15 PM