Suicide prevention program focuses on teens
Research shows 'Signs of Suicide' helps reduce the number of attempts by high school students.
from the January 3, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
Sadie, a Medway senior who heard the SOS presentation as a sophomore, says that "in high school, especially in a small town like this,... once you break someone's trust you don't know where you're going to end up yourself." But SOS gives students a different perspective, she says. "You really see how dangerous it is not to speak out.... When it comes down to either losing a friend because they're not talking to you anymore or losing a friend because they lost their life, you know, I think this makes people come out and say, 'This person needs help.' "
Medway counselor Meredith Poulten sends a letter to parents each year explaining the SOS program and the basic self-screening survey that students are asked to take. After seeing the presentation, students privately answer a few questions about their mental outlook, ranging from "Do you have less energy than you normally do?" to "Do you think seriously about killing yourself?" Then a scoring guide tells them whether they should consider evaluation or counseling.
Each year Mrs. Poulten gets some calls from parents with questions, and a few decide they don't want their children to participate. Usually less than 1 percent of students say they want to talk with a counselor after the screening. But Poulten finds about a dozen whose surveys prompt her to "check to make sure they're OK," she says. "Sometimes they're just having a bad day. If we do really find a problem, then we contact the parents."
Poulten runs a drop-in center where students can come to talk, hang out, or even do research for a class. While she encourages them to talk over issues with parents, she keeps everything confidential unless students are at risk of harming themselves or others. She also oversees peer counselors, who assist with the SOS program and have their own room where students can come talk about anything on their minds.
Perhaps the most effective component of SOS at Medway is an additional video created by a peer counselor who has since graduated. Looking straight into the camera, occasionally flipping wavy blond hair out of his eyes, he tells what led to his own suicide attempts in high school.
Depression and suicidal thoughts are "kind of like a black hole.... It gradually gets bigger and bigger and sucks you in until everything is just a negative thought," he says to the somber freshmen watching him on a screen. He describes the night when he got into a fight not only with his best friend but with his parents, too. He stormed into his room after telling his family, "I'm sorry for making your life so difficult ... and hopefully you can find someone to take my place and be a lot better than I've been."
Nobody checked on him, as he hoped they would. "That night I cut myself worse than I'd ever cut myself before, hoping that I wouldn't wake up in the morning. I thank God every day that I woke up, now," he says. He tried to hang himself that summer, but the following school year Poulten's message started to click and he realized "that people needed me around, and I had things to do and accomplish."
His plea to each freshman at Medway (where a girl succeeded in her suicide attempt while he was a student there): "Look at your friends, notice what's going on.... This isn't a joke."
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