Our team has done a number of interventions related to teen suicides recently.  Here are CISM-related excerpts from a document that describes the county’s protocol for responding to attempted or completed child suicides.  The full document is attached to this post, as a Word document.

Offering Youth Hope

A Model Protocol for Dealing with Suicidal and Potentially Suicidal Youth

Developed by the Adolescent Suicide Prevention Task Force of the

Santa Clara County Child Death Review Team

2001-2002

If a student has completed suicide on campus

1. Contact emergency services (911).
2. Mobilize the individual within the school who handles such issues or the school crisis team.
3. Isolate direct witnesses to a designated area away from the scene and from the other students.  Have a staff person stay with them for support.
4. Keep staff and students away from the area around the student who has died. This area is considered a crime scene and should be left undisturbed for the subsequent police investigation..
5. One person should be designated by the crisis team to contact the parents as soon as possible and maintain contact with them after the episode
6. Provide brief summary information to staff and students.  One way to do this is to send a memo to classes with brief information about the event and have the teacher provide an opportunity for immediate discussion.  This allows the teacher to identify students potentially vulnerable to contagion risk and pass this information on to the crisis team so that arrangements can be made for personalized follow-up.
7. Provide information to front office staff and/or local district administration.
8. Establish a press/media center at the school site, and have one member of the crisis team be the person designated to speak with the press.  Restrict the press and media to the media center area.  Do not allow press and media people to wander around the school.
9. Send a letter home with the students and follow this up with a similar mailed letter to the parents.
10. The letter should contain the name of a crisis team member who is available for special response to parents/families who seek it.
11. Generally large on-site memorial services are not a good idea.  They tend to add to the emotional intensity of the episode and potentially promote contagion.
12. Santa Clara County Suicide and Crisis Service is prepared to provide on-campus mental health support services if those services are requested.  The Center for Living with Dying is also available to provide on-campus grief counseling and support.

This protocol draws heavily on an excellent resource book, Preventing Youth Suicide, by McEvoy ML and McEvoy, AW, second edition, Learning Publications Inc. 5351 Gulf Drive, P.O. Box 1338m Holmes Beach FL 34218-1338, phone 1-800-222-1525 or www.learningpublications.com

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Appendix Seven

Community Resources

Countywide

Mobile Crisis Services

• Eastfied Ming-Quong Mobile Crisis Team (24/7 service)

Immediately identify yourself as having a youth in crisis.  They will send two therapists to the site who are qualified to evaluate the youth.  They may develop a safety plan or can write a 5150 for transport to a psychiatric facility. They can arrange for prompt ambulance transportation (408) 294-0500

Alcohol and Drug Abuse

• Gateway is the county 24/7 entry point for referral to treatment.

 (408) 243-0222

Crisis Housing

• Bill Wilson House provides short term outpatient and residential treatment

(408) 243-0222

Helplines

• Suicide and Crisis (24/7)                           (408) 279-3312
• Alateen (ages 13 to 19)                             (408) 243-9254
• Contact Warm Line                                 (408) 279-0303
• Youth Hotline (24/7)                                 (408) 247-7717
• Kid Call (3-6pm)                                       (800) 546-7549

Postvention Services and Consultation

• Santa Clara County Suicide and

Crisis Service                                            (408) 279-3312

Grief Counseling Support

• Centre for Living with Dying                         (408) 980-9801

“Healing Heart” for children with

concurrent parent program

• Hospice of the Valley                                     (408) 947-1233

Children’s Bereavement Program

• Survivors of Suicide                                       (408) 885-3288

Culturally Specific Resources

• American Indian Center                                (408) 971-9622
• Asian-Americans for                                      (408) 975-2739

Community Involvement (ACCI)

24 hr hotline; extensive language,

indiv/group/family therapy, shelter for

battered women and children

• AT&T Translation Service Center                (800) 874-9426
• Billy DeFrank Lesbian and Gay

Community Center                                        (408) 293-3040

• Centro de Bien Estar                                      (408) 287-6200

Hispanic focus, children and their

Family in group counseling

• Mekong Community Center                          (408) 274-2453
• Ujima Adult and Family Services                  (408) 928-1700

            African-American Focus

Parenting classes, youth programs, family

Therapy and psychiatric evaluations

North County

• Casa Say 30 day residential program        (650) 961-2622

For runaway youths 13-18

• John F. Kennedy-Community                  (650) 524-4900

Counseling Center counseling services

For children, adolescents and families,

Done by interns under supervision,

Sliding scale

Central County

• San Jose Police School liaison unit is a resource for schools located in the city limits of San Jose.  The unit operates out of the Community Services Unit and functions as a point of contract to the police department for schools within the city.  They are available to discuss issues and assist in planning for emergencies.  They are also available to broker services in the event of an attempted or completed suicide on campus.  They maintain contacts with service providers and can assist in getting the appropriate agency or organization to meet the needs of students, families and staff.  (408) 277-4133

• Alum Rock Counseling Center has a culturally competent mobile team that will provide counseling on site.  24 hour crisis line for 11-17 year olds (408) 294-0579

This list is not exhaustive.  Please feel free to add agencies to the list that you frequently contact in your area.

 Santa Clara County school suicide protocol

Appendix Eight

School Crisis Team

A school crisis team is a group of key people who have prearranged, designated roles in a crisis situation.  While the exact membership may vary, the key is that the group has been through a formal training process as a team so that each member knows how to cooperatively fulfill an important function during a school crisis. Sometimes team members wear special identifiers, such as armbands or jackets that help people identify them. Typical team membership includes:

• Principal (usually team leader), often functioning as site commander
• Campus Security
• Office Staff
• Faculty Liaison
• Parent Liaison
• Psychologist/Counselor
• Student Liaison
• Media Liaison
• Medical/Health staff
• Scribe

(Adopted from materials of the Sunnyvale School District and Palo Alto Unified School District)