July 18, 2018, Atlanta Journal Constitution: With youth suicide on the rise, outreach targets parents https://www.ajc.com/news/youth-suicide-the-rise-outreach-targets-parents/KKJjAmguR9EilOOsLCJptN/ The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is rolling out a new public service announcement aimed at combating a rise in youth suicides. The video features parents and other family members of young people who either took their own lives or attempted to. “We’ve had children 6 years old commit suicide,” GBI Director Vernon Keenan said in the PSA unveiled Wednesday. “They’re in the GBI morgue to be autopsied. What a tragedy. A grade school child commits suicide?” Suicide is now the second leading cause of death in the nation for people between the ages of 15 and 19, according to the CDC. Since the beginning of 2018, 23 youths under the age of 17 have taken their lives in the state.Within the past five years, there have been 211… The number of suicide attempts might be quadruple that, Keenan said. The GBI estimates that for every death by suicide there are 25 attempts. That’s based on the volume of hospitalizations each year…. Walker Tisdale, Director of Suicide Prevention at the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said focusing on “protective factors” is also an important part of suicide prevention. He urges parents to look for warning signs — such as social isolation — in their children’s behavior that could indicate they are considering some form of self harm…. The Department of Education held a series of summits last years to help educators recognize signs that a student might be under duress. It’ll be hosting four more trainings this year in response to schools that have asked for more training, Benefield said.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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