CDC survey becomes a tool in Stark County suicide prevention

Oct. 16--A survey conducted on the heels of a cluster of teen suicides in Stark County will be used as a tool to help prevent future deaths.

After 12 middle- and high-school students in Stark died by suicide between August 2017 and last March, local and state health officials asked for help from the Centers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in analyzing contributing factors.

The goals: Figure out why the youth suicide rate was 7 times above the national average during that period and to devise preventative strategies moving forward.

With guidance from the CDC, Stark County Educational Service Center and others, the Stark County Health Department and Ohio Department of Health conducted a survey last spring of more than 15,000 area students in grades 7 through 12.

Results and analyses of the survey questions were released Monday in a 56-page report.

"We know we're not going to solve this quickly," said ESC Superintendent Joe Chaddock, who along with other local school officials discussed the report Monday during a meeting at The Canton Repository.

The concluding portions of the report includes a section devoted to "Preliminary Findings and Opportunities for Prevention." It lays out many strategies within seven defined areas that could help engage schools, mental health providers, parents and students:

1. Strengthen access and delivery of suicide care. Nearly 16 percent of students were not always able to get medical or psychological care when needed.

2. Create protective environments. One in 4 students has access to a gun, nearly twice the rate as the U.S. student population as a whole; less than half of students feel safe at school; and nearly half have used alcohol or drugs at least once.

3. Promote "connectedness." Local students are more involved in school and community activities than their peers in Ohio, but still 1 in 10 students is not involved in an activity.

4. Teach coping and problem-solving skills. Better than 3 in 5 students have experienced an adverse childhood experience, a higher rate than peers in Ohio and in the U.S.

5. Identify and support people at risk. Better than 3 in 5 students would tell a friend if he or she experienced suicidal thoughts, and 1 in 2 would tell a parent. Such statistics, the report states, means there are opportunities for community members to act as "gatekeepers" to help prevent a suicide.

6. Lessen harms and prevent future risks. 16 percent of students lost a friend or family member to suicide in 2017-18; nearly 2 in 5 students attended an event to memorialize a teen who died by suicide, which the report states can have a negative effect, because such events can serve to glorify the act of suicide; 3 in 4 students saw a news article about Stark County teen suicides, which the report states can sensationalize suicide; and nearly 3 in 4 read about it on social media.

7. Administer ongoing youth health and behavior surveys. School districts can use several existing surveys, such as the Ohio Youth Risk Behavior, to help develop intervention and prevention strategies and to identify new and emerging risk factors.

The survey was administered to 15,083 students from 18 school districts in three counties. School officials said they're confident survey results are an accurate depiction of the student bodies in local middle and high schools as a whole.

Students were asked questions about: school attendance and grades; extracurricular involvement; home and school lives; interaction with parents or caregivers; time spent on video games, social media or unsupervised; access to medical and psychological care; life experiences; substance use; mental health history; exposure to suicide news and social media; bullying; and their access to guns.

Among the findings:

--Only 1 in 2 students feels he or she is a "part of my school," and is "happy to be at my school."

--2 in 3 students spends between 1 and 4 hours on social media daily.

--Nearly 1 in 4 students lives with someone who is depressed, mentally ill or suicidal.

--3 in 10 students said they have had a mental health problem.

--1 in 5 students has thought of suicide, and 1 in 11 has attempted suicide at least once.

"The report emphasizes the importance of unprecedented collaboration in developing and enhancing youth suicide prevention strategies," Stark County Health Commissioner Kirk Norris said in a news release. "These findings will be used to enhance our youth suicide prevention practices."

In the same release, John Aller, executive director of the Stark County Mental Health & Addiction Recovery, said the information serves as a bridge between the young people and adults.

"We know that getting the youth themselves involved in prevention activities increases our chances for success," Aller said. "We want to help erase stigma by using what we now know to encourage frank conversations between young people and all the folks who are here to help them."

Chaddock, the ESC superintendent, said perhaps the key sentence in the entire report lies within the final paragraph of the narrative portion of the document: "Suicide is preventable."

Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @tbotosREP

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