Screening teens could help prevent a tragedy

I write in response to your article, “Family Copes with Loss, Urges Teens to Reach Out”, regarding the tragic loss of an Allentown High School student (Tri-Town News, Nov. 17, 2004).

It is always shocking when a young person cuts his or her own life short, but, unfortunately, it occurs more often than most people think. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens today, trailing only accidents and violence.

As startling as that statistic is, it is also alarming how few are aware that many teen suicides could have been prevented through programs that screen for adolescent depression and suicide risk.

Almost one in 10 American teenagers suffers from a mental illness, and the failure to detect and treat it can have deadly consequences.

Research has shown that 90 percent of those who commit suicide suffer from a diagnosable and treatable mental illness at the time of their death, but the vast majority of these teens are not known to their parents, teachers, or other adults as having a significant problem.

In response to this public health crisis, Columbia Univer-sity has spent the past decade developing, implementing and evaluating its TeenScreen Pro-gram.

TeenScreen provides communities with the tools and training necessary to identify youth who are at risk for suicide and/or who are suffering from unidentified and untreated mental illness.

Columbia provides communities with consultation, training, technical assistance, and screening and assessment tools free of charge. To date, Teen-Screen has been successfully implemented at over 215 sites in 41 states, including New Jersey.

No family is immune from the potential horror of suicide. I strongly encourage parents, health professionals, educators and others to support the routine screening of teens to help prevent the terrible tragedy of suicide.

Laurie Flynn

Director

TeenScreen Program

Columbia University Carmel Hill Center

for the Early Diagnosis

and Treatment

of Mental Illness

Division of Child and

Adolescent Psychiatry

New York