Studies/Reports
Racial and Gender Disparities in Suicide Among Young Adults Aged 18–24: United States, 2009–2013 (PDF; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; published 2015)
Mortality in the United States, 2014 (PDF; National Center for Health Statistics; compares suicide relative to other causes of death).
Suicide Risk and Risk of Death Among Recent Veterans (Annals of Epidemiology, Feb. 25, 2015). “Veterans exhibit significantly higher suicide risk compared with the US general population. However, deployment to the Iraq or Afghanistan war, by itself, was not associated with the excess suicide risk.”
Resources for Clinicians
Suicide Risk Assessment Guide (Word document download; published by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; undated).
Suicide Risk Assessment (downloadable PDF published by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center).
Estimating the risk of suicide (published by SuicideLine, Australia). Downloadable PDF of SuicideLine’s assessment guideline.
Assessment of suicide risk in people with depression: A clinical guide (Centre for Suicide Research,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford).
Suicide Risk Assessment (Center for Quality Assessment and Improvement in Mental Health; includes a suicide-behaviors questionnaire, and suicidal-ideation-assessment guidelines)
SAFE-T Card (Suicide Assessment and Five-Step Evaluation and Treatment card; downloadable PDF)
Resources for Parents, Schools & Educators
After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools (a 49-page guidebook to helping a school community cope with the trauma of a suicide, and how to prevent future suicides in the community; published by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center).
Youth Suicide Prevention Program (Washington State nonprofit; resources for youths, parents, educators; FAQs and guidelines on risk assessments, coping with a suicide, and other concerns).
A Parent’s Guide to Recognizing and Treating Depression in Your Child (20-page downloadable PDF, published by the Youth Suicide Prevention Program).
Resources for a Better Understanding of Mental-health Issues
Major mental-health disorders and treatment resources (National Institute of Mental Health)
Mental Health First Aid (nonprofit focused on helping create awareness of mental-health issues, and on ensuring communities are competent to help people in crisis; links to register for free classes in mental-health first aid).
Resources for understanding/addressing drug & alcohol addiction
CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention). The CDC developed and published these guidelines to provide recommendations for prescribing opioid pain medication for patients 18 and older in primary care settings. The recommendations focus on the use of opioids in treating chronic pain (pain lasting longer than 3 months or past the time of normal tissue healing) for patients not being actively treated for cancer, palliative care, and end-of-life care.
Understanding alcohol-use disorders (American Psychological Association). “For many people, drinking alcohol is nothing more than a pleasant way to relax. People with alcohol use disorders, however, drink to excess, endangering both themselves and others. This question-and-answer fact sheet explains alcohol problems and how psychologists can help people recover.”
Understanding the U.S. opioid epidemic (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). “Opioid abuse is a serious public health issue. Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States.”
Statistics and Research on drug abuse (U.S. National Library of Medicine). Drug-Related Hospital Emergency Room Visits, the science of addiction, and other resources.