Delaware teen suicide rate prompts action, awareness

When 15-year-old Jeremy Kossek laughed, he really laughed. He giggled and giggled until his face turned tomato red and he couldn't breathe, his mom Cyndi McLaughlin says.

Loved by teachers, Jeremy excelled at sports, especially lacrosse, and enjoyed dabbling in poetry. At first glance he seems the picture of carefree, teenage bliss.

But family saw a different side of the Christiana High School freshman: a troubled teen who struggled for years with depression and bipolar disorder. It tragically became too much; he took his life on Halloween in 2001, before reaching his 16th birthday.

At the time, McLaughlin said many of her son's teachers and guidance counselors felt ill-prepared to address sensitive mental health concerns and suicide.

Now, 14 years later and following a rash of teen suicides in lower Delaware, McLaughlin, Delaware lawmakers, and state health and education officials want to train public school employees how to know when a student is in distress and how to act quickly and sensitively to address his or her needs.

According to the American Federation for Suicide Prevention, Delaware is only one of 13 states that does not require school personnel to have such training.

"Teachers spend more time with our kids than we do. And if we can help them understand and give them the tools to identify the warning signs. ... Education is half the battle," McLaughlin said.

"If we can save one mom the heartache that I suffer it's well worth all the time we put into it."

Legislation supported by Delaware's largest teacher's union and proposed by House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, D-Bear, would require all school district and charter school employees to take a 90-minute suicide prevention training course each year, as well as establish a committee that would coordinate a suicide prevention program within the school.

The training is free, and additional outreach to the schools will be supported by a grant provided by UnitedHealthcare, officials said.

At-risk behavior would be reported confidentially and anonymously. Staff and students can not be retaliated against for reporting the warning signs of suicide. The bill is set to be heard Wednesday in the House Education Committee, with the hope it will be up for a full vote next week.

"This is a bill that is way overdue," Longhurst said last week. "Because losing one life is unacceptable."

Nationally, suicide is second most common cause of death. In Delaware, for young adults between 15 and 24 years of age, it is the third. Rates in Delaware have risen slowly over the years.

In 2012, the state saw 11 teens take their lives, the highest number over the last 12 years for teens between 15 and 19 years of age. That same year, 39 kids were hospitalized for self-inflicted injuries.

All 11 suicides occurred between January 1 and May 4, 2012, in Kent and Sussex counties, four at Polytech High School in Woodside alone. The pain is still raw for most community members; Polytech Superintendent Dr. Deborah Zych declined to comment on the legislation.

Concerned, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated the cluster of incidences and found at least 28 attempts were linked to those deaths and 116 nonfatal attempts were recorded during that period.

"The common theme was the children were dealing with multiple stressors," explained Bob Dunleavy, a suicide prevention specialist with the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and Families, on the suicides.

Kids go through many transitions as they age, moving from family stress and maybe loss to forming (and ending) relationships, and coming to terms with gender identity or sexual orientation, Dunleavy said.

To address these issues head-on, the state has added over 30 behavioral health counselors in all middle schools, 52 family crisis therapists in elementary schools and, through a grant, worked to implement similar suicide prevention training in some middle schools.

In 2011, before the training kicked off, Dunleavy said one out of four kids in Delaware classrooms considered suicide. Two years later, the number dropped from 28 percent to 16 percent. He said this proves that when schools are committed to such training, it actually works.

"We are really happy with that initial result with the training ... In reality we may never get to zero but this is what we should always be working toward," he said.

"What this bill will do will continually refresh school staff and eventually hopefully school students with the need to identify alternative ways to deal with their problems as opposed to a tunnel vision approach."

McLaughlin, who is one of the founding members of the advocacy group Foundation for a Better Tomorrow, has dedicated her life to raising awareness about suicide prevention.

"After [Jeremy] died I made a very conscious decision that I would be honest about how he died and why he died ... and the struggles we went through to get him counseling and treatment," she said. "I would do the same thing if he had cancer."

She said stigma and a lack of services were the biggest barriers to Jeremy getting care.

At 13, he was arrested and incarcerated for 30 days instead of getting the mental health treatment he needed. Eventually he was transferred to a facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but it was traumatic, McLaughlin said. She felt like a failure not being able to get him the help he needed.

"I do think that we've made progress in talking about mental health and not as much as we should," McLaughlin said. "In my heart I believe we see commercials for every illness and disorder on the planet, but never really see education, suicide prevention commercials."

Suicide is something that is so preventable, added Dr. Jamie Caruso, a member of the Delaware State Education Association and psychologist with the Colonial School District.

"The majority of teachers truly care about there students and want them to succeed academically and in life," Caruso said. "Anything you can do to keep the children safe and learn better they are going to do."

The prevention policies would have to be included in student and staff handbooks, and be made available online, but Caruso said the policies need to be age appropriate.

"Elementary age students do commit suicide," she said. "We are really working on the prevention piece so we can promote their mental wellness on a younger age."

The training shouldn't be a "canned" 90-minute professional development lecture, added Dr. Mark Holodick, superintendent of the Brandywine School District.

Albeit challenging, staff should be encouraged to work with mental health clinicians that could support the district in a personalized way so each training is meaningful and research-based, he said.

"I think its every bit worth the challenge," Holodick said.

The next piece will be increasing the number of counselors in the school system and working with students so they will feel empowered to help a friend who is struggling. It may mean they will save

a life.

"Teens are going to listen to teens more than adults...You're not a bad friend by telling an adult," Caruso said. "Being a good friend means that you are concerned about your friend's well-being and you are doing something proactive."

Jen Rini can be reached at (302) 324-2386 or jrini@delawareonline.com. Follow @JenRini on Twitter.

TO GET HELP

If you or someone you know is at risk for suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255.

Other resources available include:

Delaware Child Priority Response Hotline: (800) 969-4357.

Youth-related website: http://getrightsideup.org

Mobile crisis units (for those 18 and older): (800) 652-2929 (statewide); 577-2484 (New Castle County Crisis); (800) 345-6785 (Kent/Sussex Crisis).