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The New Book on Youth Suicide Prevention

The New Book on Youth Suicide Prevention 150 150 John Ackerman, PhD and Lisa Horowitz, PhD, MPH

Our new open access Springer Series book helps close the gap between the latest research in youth suicide prevention and how to make an impact in our communities. 

Youth suicide is a public health crisis. It is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10-17 in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and suicide rates among youth continue to increase in the United States. But that’s not the whole story. We know more about identifying and treating at-risk young people than ever.

We were inspired to develop a book that would highlight how far we’ve come and offer tools and resources to keep the good working coming. And we wanted it to be accessible — easy for non-experts to read and understand as well as free to read and download.

Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention makes good on those goals, with 18 chapters covering the most pressing issues on various suicide prevention topics, complete with recommendations of how we can improve future practices. We’re proud of the book we edited and of the experts from across the country who came together to share their knowledge in the chapters.

Key topics covered in the book’s chapters include:

  • Neurobiology of at-risk children and adolescents
  • How machine learning can aid in youth suicide prevention
  • Prevention, intervention and postvention in schools
  • Suicide risk screening in medical settings
  • Culturally informed suicide prevention programming and risk conceptualization
  • Suicide and self-harm prevention support for higher risk populations, including LGBTQ+ youth, Black youth, American Indian/Alaska Native youth, and youth with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities

Our research experts have distilled their findings into easily understandable takeaways to inform clinicians, researchers, and community advocates alike. We’ve worked with the Nationwide Children’s Foundation to ensure that the book is open source so readers can access all of the content for free — no pay walls or hoops to jump through. Our writers and editors have made sure the information is written in plain language, empowering you to take action — no research background required!

We are proud of all the collective hard work and passion that went into creating this book, and we are proud with anticipation of what you will do with the information you learn from it. Together, we can prevent youth suicides.

 

Reference:

Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention: Best Practices and Policy Implication, 1 ed. Edited by Ackerman JP, Horowitz LM. (Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2022).

About the author

John Ackerman, PhD, is a child clinical psychologist and the Suicide Prevention Clinical Manager for the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research (CSPR) at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The CSPR helps schools and community organizations in Ohio implement evidence-based prevention strategies. Dr. Ackerman and his team have provided training to many schools throughout central and southeastern Ohio using an enhanced Signs of Suicide (SOS) prevention programming model with a focus on fidelity and long-term sustainability. Dr. Ackerman also supports clinical training of psychologists, social workers, and counselors at Nationwide Children's. He serves on the Zero Suicide Implementation team and is involved in training on suicide screening and risk assessment in primary care and community settings.

Dr. Horowitz is a Senior Associate Scientist / Clinical Psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health. She serves as a senior attending with a specialty in pediatric psychology on the Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service in the Hatfield Clinical Research Center at NIH. As a Principal Investigator in the Intramural Program at NIMH, her research focuses on suicide prevention strategies in medical settings.

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