PREVENTION: The CDC conducts a study to prevent more of the mounting suicides in the Palo Alto area.
By Emma Carson, Staff Writer
On February 16, 2016, news sources everywhere touched on an interesting yet underrated topic: teen suicides in the northern California region of Palo Alto. In the past seven years, there has been a shocking amount of suicides and suicide attempts from just two high schools in Palo Alto, with ten suicides total. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sent a five-person team to investigate the issue, hoping to find an explanation for the rash amount of suicides.
The five-person team arrived in Santa Clara County on February 16 and will conduct research through February 29. This study isn’t as easy as finding a disease and “controlling” it. The team will have to combat the psychological aspect, which will take time. The CDC will study behavior, especially those of the teens who attempted suicide. They will track and compare any trends of suicidal behavior found between 2008 and 2015.
Another issue they hope to address is the availability of youth suicide prevention policies. They will compare the strategies in the Palo Alto area to national and evidence-based recommendations. They hope to make the surrounding schools and whole city aware of the best strategies and further prevent more attempts.
One possible cause for the suicides is academic stress. All of these kids were in high school, and it is very common to be stressed in such an environment. This suicide outburst has worried many residents of the area because if the result is academic stress, then why are these numbers so high, and why aren’t other cities dealing with the same issue? Stress is a main cause for mental illness, but the CDC will also research what else could have caused the outbreak.
Studies like this have been increasingly necessary considering the growing rate of mental disorders in the U.S. alone. In 2009 and 2010, six teenagers took their lives in the Palo Alto area. In 2014 and 2015, four more followed them and several more people took their lives on the tracks of the commuter train that runs through the city. In a study from the 2013-2014 school year, 12% of high school students had considered suicide and 42 students of the same high school had been hospitalized from suicide attempts.
These numbers are very disturbing and heartbreaking, and they occur more often as more and more teenagers are burdened by mental disorders. The CDC is taking a huge step by studying mental health and human behavior, which can help prevent the number of suicides from getting higher in Palo Alto and eventually the whole country.