Facebook Provides First-of-Its-Kind Service to Help Prevent Suicides

In partnership with the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, Facebook has announced a new service attempting to prevent suicides across North America. The service enables Facebook users to report a suicidal comment posted by a friend using either the Report Suicidal Content link https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=suicidal_content or the links found throughout the site.

The poster of the comment will immediately receive an e-mail from Facebook encouraging them to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or to click on a link to begin a confidential chat with a crisis worker. The project is a collaboration among the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Facebook.

In another story, a new survey by University of Washington researchers has found that, while about one of nine youths attempt suicide by the time they graduate from high school, nearly 40 percent of those who said they had tried suicide reported their first attempt was before they entered high school. The study was published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health http://jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(11)00127-3/abstract.

Sources: http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1112125820.aspx
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_119226.html

Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.com

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National Suicide Prevention Week
Kevin McHale for Trevor Project
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/talktome/index.html

Upcoming Free Webinar on Cyberbullying and Suicide

MARCH 29—CYBERBULLYING AND SUICIDE: What Schools Must Do to Protect Students and Districts:

This national webinar will address the true magnitude and toll of bullying and use of the Internet to taunt children all day, every day and everywhere; legal consequences for school districts and legal recourse for parents; how the anonymity that the Internet offers can cloak perpetrators’ identity and enhance the vitriol of their taunting; and what schools, parents and communities must do to keep children safe in the virtual world. The webinar is Tuesday, March 29th, 2011, from 3:00 pm-4:30 pm, EDT. This webinar is free of charge and is sponsored by the Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Department of Education. To register, visit https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/724520755.

Reposted at  keystothecloset.blogspot.com