Question

After reading about crisis intervention and suicide intervention, what components would be needed to create a model suicide prevention program to use in a school setting? Feel free to also be creative and incorporate your own ideas along with other critical components.

Answer 1

One of the major problems that today’s society faces is the psychological stress that the children in the schools undergo left unattended because of various reasons such as the parents being busy working, the teachers branding some children as useless, more screen time, homework pressure etc. Most of the time, these children will feel lonely and act on their own. They may also develop inferiority complex. So, intervening on time is crucial in preventing the problem from developing into a crisis thus leading to unwanted act such as suicide.

One of the most important interventions should come from the parent themselves. When something happens in the school, the child might not share it with anyone in the school except the parents. So, they need to spend more time with the child in helping the child understand that they love them and they are important to them, thus getting their attention first. If they need they could take them to a counselor for further process.

The teachers who attend the child’s class can observe some abnormalities and counsel them if not they could refer them to the school counselor.

An awareness program could be arranged where the importance of identifying abnormal behaviors in their friends could be shared and the importance of reporting the same to the class teacher could be shared.

The school counseling system should be strong enough to follow-up with the distressed and already counseled students.

There could be periodical stress relief sessions for the children wherein becoming assertive and confident could be developed through various activities.