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Highlighted Theme: Managing the Pediatric Mental Health Crisis
Alex Kemper (he/him/his)
Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Columbus, Ohio, United States
In 2019, 26.4% (6488) of youth deaths (24,587) in the United States were from young people taking their own lives. Additionally, the youth suicide rate has increased over the last decade, with significant disparities in suicide rates, risk, and access to care for youth across cultures and communities. These sobering statistics are a call to action: now more than ever there is an urgent need for national leadership and partnerships to advance youth suicide prevention.
In response to the rising suicide rates, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) partnered to develop a “Blueprint for Youth Suicide Prevention,” which serves as a strategic plan to engage pediatricians, and other care providers, in youth suicide prevention in clinical and community settings. The Blueprint content was informed by a 2021 virtual Youth Suicide Prevention Summit that convened key stakeholders from multidisciplinary fields to discuss the epidemiology, trends, and disparities in youth suicide risk, share knowledge on existing science, practice, and policy, and generate ideas for partnerships and actionable strategies to build equitable, culturally appropriate youth suicide prevention efforts in clinical and community settings.
In this session, we propose a moderated discussion on the AAP/AFSP/NIMH “Blueprint for Youth Suicide Prevention” covering the development of the Blueprint, how to engage clinical and community settings in suicide prevention, and how to address social determinants of health that cause and intensify disparities in suicide risk.
Speaker: Alex R. Kemper, MD, MPH, MS – Nationwide Children's Hospital
Speaker: Julie Gorzkowski, MSW, LSW – American Academy of Pediatrics
Speaker: Lisa M. Horowitz, PhD, MPH – National Institute of Mental Health
Speaker: Tami D. Benton, MD – CHOP/PENN
Speaker: Christine Yu Moutier, MD – American Foundation for Suicide Prevention