COLUMBUS (AP) – Nationwide Children’s Hospital has created a center to study suicide in efforts to better understand it and stop it from happening.
The first goal of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research is to apply discoveries made by studying suicide to create interventions in children who see suicide as an answer to their problems, Jeff Bridge, a suicide researcher at the hospital, told the Columbus Dispatch.
He says the center also aims to bolster the hospital’s relationship with school districts and collaborate with them on a prevention program.
Thirteen students killed themselves last year in Franklin County and another seven in the first half of this year.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens and college age young adults.
With younger generations using cellphones less for actual conversation and more for text messaging, suicide prevention organizations are setting up ways that let distraught youths seek help that way.
The Massachusetts suicide prevention organization Samaritans is now accepting text messages. Executive Director Steve Mongeau says the new option started this month and is specifically aimed at young people who may feel more comfortable communicating via text.
Samaritans is the first Massachusetts suicide prevention organization to offer a text messaging option, but other groups around the country have been doing it.
The Samaritans texting option is available between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. daily. Mongeau says the goal is to make it available 24/7.