In the News
Press Release
Teens Share Personal Stories with the Hope of Saving Lives
Chicago, IL (August 3, 2011) – Screening for Mental Health, Inc. recently released a new Friends for Life: Preventing Teen Suicide DVD and discussion guide. The DVD, which features local not-for-profit Elyssa’s Mission, serves as the main teaching tool of the award-winning SOS Signs of Suicide® program. In addition it features three new, compelling real-life stories of teens who struggled with mental health issues, interviews with school counselors and other mental health professionals, and four professionally-acted vignettes. Through the use of modeling, students learn simple and specific instructions for how to recognize the signs of mental health distress, in either themselves or a friend, and how to respond effectively.
The Friends for Life DVD also features the true stories of three teens—Sommer, Jordan and Elyssa—who struggled with depression. Each story highlights the importance of recognizing unhealthy behavior, getting help, and reclaiming a hopeful future.
Recent media coverage of youth suicides has brought the issue of anti-bullying and suicide prevention programs to national attention. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26.1 percent of American high school students struggle with depression and 13.8 percent of students have seriously considered attempting suicide. The SOS Signs of Suicide program seeks to lower these statistics through education and awareness.
“Tragically, suicide is a permanent response to a treatable illness, usually depression,” says Douglas G. Jacobs, M.D., associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and founder and president of Screening for Mental Health, Inc. “Research reveals more than two-thirds of youth will share their suicidal thoughts with a peer instead of a counselor, which is why it’s so important to give students the help-seeking messages as taught in the SOS program.”
The SOS High School program is the only school-based suicide prevention program listed on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices that addresses suicide risk and depression, while reducing suicide attempts. In a randomized controlled study, the SOS program showed a reduction in self-reported suicide attempts by 40 percent (BMC Public Health, July 2007).
Click here to watch the SOS Friends for Life: Preventing Teen Suicide Trailer
Elyssa’s Mission
Elyssa’s Mission is a 501c3 nonprofit established in Illinois in 2006. Elyssa’s Mission is a foundation dedicated to educating, funding, distributing, and implementing the SOS Signs of Suicide® program, as well as other prevention programs that are evidence based and backed by mental health professionals. Elyssa’s Mission takes a strength-based, public health approach to its work with a focus on providing support and resources to help with the painful challenges faced by today’s teenagers. For more information e-mail elyssasmission@aol.com or go to www.elyssasmission.org.
Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
(SMH) pioneered the concept of large-scale mental health screening and education programs in 1991, with its flagship program, National Depression Screening Day®. SMH programs—both in-person and online—educate, raise awareness and screen individuals for depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, alcohol use disorders and suicide.
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