NCJ Number
120460
Editor(s)
M L Rosenberg,
K Baer
Date Published
1989
Length
203 pages
Annotation
The suicide rate for persons aged 15 to 24 has almost tripled in the past 30 years in the United States; suicide is now the second leading cause of death for persons in this age group.
Abstract
A task force was assigned to coordinate suicide prevention activities among Federal and private agencies, State and local governments, Congress, and professional organizations. It drew information from 50 commissioned papers, and from written recommendations from more than 200 experts and participants in youth suicide prevention. Forty-seven original recommendations were refined and reduced to six final recommendations. Eleven commissioned papers cover various aspects of the problem. One paper estimates human costs (average loss of 53 years of life), economic costs (average loss of $432,000 of productivity), and asserts that relative to its impact on society, the problem of youth suicide receives little real attention. Other papers estimate the effectiveness of different types of intervention, psychological factors, underlying themes, testimony from suicide attempters and those who have fantasized attempting suicide, and prevailing problems in studying suicide. Tables, appendix, 10 references.