The Santa Clara County Child Death Review Team (CDRT), is comprised of a number of public and private agencies that come together to review cases of child deaths under the age of 18 years old that occur in the county. In response to three adolescent suicides in a two-month period, the CDRT formed a sub-committee, the Adolescent Suicide Prevention Task Force to look into this urgent matter. The CDRT solicited support and membership for the task force from key community stakeholders from diverse areas which included school education, law enforcement, court services, probation, coroner’s office, public health, mental health, suicide and crisis services, social services, CBOs, and advocates from the gay and lesbian community. The task force recommended a conference to train educators in suicide prevention, intervention, and post event strategies. Planning ensued and resulted in a compilation of community resources and a training conference. The event was attended by 200 people including representation from over 90 middle schools and high schools in the county. Issues covered in the conference included; identification of at-risk youth, strategies to employ when dealing with at-risk youth, legal issues, identification of resources, and post event issues. The conference was used as a springboard for key stakeholders to dialogue about adolescent suicide and to initiate the process of establishing a standard countywide school suicide prevention/postvention protocol.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescents, Suicide
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Santa Clara County Suicide and Crisis Service
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.