A High School Depression and Suicide Prevention Program: A Collaboration between Health Education and Psychological Services

Abstract

The involvement of health educators in designing programs to address the mental health needs of our youths has been increasingly recommended. This article focuses on the collaboration between health education and psychological services in the development and implementation of a depression and suicide prevention program for a high school population. The specific objectives of this program were to raise awareness about teenage depression and suicide, increase communication about these issues within the high school and local community, and provide information about the resources available to help those feeling depressed or suicidal. A five-component program was designed to achieve these objectives and included education about the warning signs and symptoms associated with teenage depression and suicide, depression screening of the entire high school population, mental health follow-up of the students following the screening, provision of resource information related to the available treatment and intervention resources within the high school and local community, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the prevention program in achieving its objectives. Data related to the achievement of these objectives are presented and suggestions for future directions of such a program are discussed.