Assisted Suicide Prevention

The following interventions provided below are drawn from epidemiologic and prevention science perspectives, guided selection of the most promising prevention/intervention targets and research pathways (Wyman, 2014). The first is interventions delivered in social systems are needed for broad impact. Children develop through interactions within social systems for example; families and schools, and interventions in these systems can influence emotional and behavioral developmental processes of large youth populations essential to reduce suicide rates (Wyman, 2014). There are two social systems which are normative social systems and reparative social systems. Normative social systems such as public schools, community youth organizations are settings for universal interventions and serve the broadest populations (Wyman, 2014). According to Wyman (2014), interventions delivered universally have the
Reparative social systems such as juvenile justice are important settings to reach high-risk youth through selective and indicated interventions, which should be a part of a comprehensive, integrated suicide prevention strategy (Wyman, 2014). On the other hand, programs in reparative social systems alone will not reach many youth who will die by suicide. Wyman (2014) gives an example, “although youth in juvenile justice facilities have a suicide rate that is approximately three times higher than that of the general population, only 0.25 percent of youth are in justice facilities at any given time in the U.S.” The second intervention is interventions that reduce common; multiple risk factors will maximize impact. What this means is scientific evidence suggests that the potential for large population reductions in suicide may be as great or greater for approaches that target more common,