Too many young lives are lost to suicide. According to the American Association of Suicidology, suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death for young people (ages 15-19 and 15-24); only accidents and homicides occur more frequently.

Teen suicide remains a serious health problem. Although prevention efforts are underway, understanding suicidal behavior can be complex. However, if people can gain awareness about the youth suicide problem and learn to identify the risk factors, the youth suicide rate can be reduced.

According to a top mental health official, suicides outnumber homicides in the United States, and some 90 percent of people who kill themselves suffer from a diagnosable and preventable problem such as depression.

CASRT Findings and Recommendations

• CASRT-CDR-2000-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2002-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2003-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2004-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2005-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2006-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2007-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2008-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2009-Statistics
• CASRT-CDR-2010-Statistics

Suicidology.org statistics

Learn how to build your own Suicide Review Team

Pines, M. and Lakshmanan S. (2006) “Chapter 17 – Suicides: Case Studies” in Child Fatality Review: Evaluation of Accidental and Inflicted Child Death. Alexander R, Case M, and Downs. M. St. Louis, MO. GW Medical Publishing.

California Strategic Plan on Suicide Prevention (Department of Mental Health)

SAMHSA High School Suicide Prevention Toolkit

Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for Highschools