Crystal Lake, IL: Teen suicide; "increase in school clinicians [doing] crisis assessments"

Dec 23, 2017, Education Week: Illinois school district program addresses mental health https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/12/23/illinois-school-district-program-addresses-mental_ap.html?r=1093488653# Concerns about suicides among teens nationwide and youth mental health issues have prompted officials at a school district in a northwestern suburb of Chicago to start discussing the topic in class. Crystal Lake Elementary District 47 launched a suicide prevention and depression awareness program this month called Signs of Suicide for its seventh- and eighth-grade students, The Daily Herald reported. … Kristin Schmidt, the district's assistant director of special education and a social worker, said the program's participants watch a video, participate in group discussions and answer questions to determine whether they are at risk of depression or have suicidal tendencies. "We are seeing an increase in school clinicians needing to do crisis assessments," Schmidt said. "We do a crisis assessment if we believe there is a significant risk of harm of self or others. To date, we have done 100 crisis assessments at our three middle schools (this school year)." …