Attempted Suicide

Indicator Definition
High school students who report they have attempted suicide one or more times during the past 12 months.

High school students who attempted suicide in past year in Colorado5

High school students who attempted suicide in past year by sex and race in Colorado6

Indicator Significance
Someone commits suicide every 17 minutes in the United States. Suicide peaks during mid-adolescence with approximately 2 million attempts each year. Although the overall suicide rate has decreased over time, it has nearly tripled for the 15 – 24 age group. Half of those who make one attempt are likely to make another. The best means to prevent suicide is education about how to recognize the warning signs often linked to mental illnesses such as chronic depression and bipolar disorder. Ninety percent of suicides are related to a history of mental illness rather than one singular event.¹

Colorado Specifics
The Rocky Mountain region has the highest suicide rate in the nation for all ages. Colorado loses approximately 48 teenagers each year to suicide, making it the second leading cause of death for those between the ages of 15 – 19. Yet compared to 40 other states, Colorado ranked sixth lowest in the percentage of high school students who attempted suicide in 2005. Suicide attempts among high school students have decreased in recent years, reaching 6.7 percent in 2005 compared to 13.2 percent in 2003. High school aged girls are three times more likely to attempt suicide compared to boys, and percentages are higher among Hispanics than white high school students.²

Promising Initiatives
In Colorado
The Colorado Trust has provided grants to 10 communities throughout the state to invest in suicide prevention, and as of August, 2007, the Trust announced it will continue to fund these programs, as well as two additional ones. This funding initiative has reached into 31 counties, raising awareness and reducing the stigma of suicide. The Trust awarded $75,000 to Mental Health America Corporation, the state’s most comprehensive suicide prevention and education program, to oversee the Colorado Suicide Prevention and Intervention Plan. Over a seven year period (2002 – 2009) the Trust has dedicated $4.9 million to the cause of reducing suicide in the state.³

Elsewhere
The legislature in Washington State supported an initiative created by parents who lost their sons to suicide in 1995. The Youth Suicide Prevention Program (YSPP) evolved to become a private non-profit organization in 2001, supported by the Department of Health and the School of Nursing at the University of Washington. YSPP educates teens through school-based campaigns and curriculum while also training teachers, administrators, and parents how to discuss the issue and identify at-risk teens. YSPP has been successful in working with the media by providing guidelines on how to report teen suicide if it does occur, in order to reduce the risk of copycat suicide attempts.⁴

High school students who attempted suicide in past year⁷

Text

1. National Adolescent Health Information Center. "2006 Fact Sheet on Suicide."
   
   National Alliance on Mental Illness. "About Mental Illness: Suicide in Youth"; June 2003.
   
   
2. “Mental Health Among Colorado’s Youth,” Colorado Connections for Health Schools.
   
   ”Youth and Suicide,” Colorado State University Extension.
   
   
3. The Colorado Trust.
   
4. Youth Suicide Prevention Program.
   

Charts

5. Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2001 – 2005.
   
6. Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2005.
   
7. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Youth, 2005.