The Utah State Office of Education, with support from the Regional Educational Laboratory West, is hosting a free one-day conference Preventing and Responding to Student Suicide: Promising Strategies for Schools.
Attendees will learn more about the prevalence, risk and protective factors, and prevention of youth suicide in Utah. It will also help schools support students in crisis and respond to instances of death in school communities.
Guest speakers will include nationally recognized experts in the field of counseling and youth suicide; Utah-based presenters on local data, policies, and resources; and a panel of school practitioners making a difference in school culture and students' lives.
Over 25,000 youth in Utah seriously considered suicide, and almost 12,000 attempted suicide, in 2013. While a much larger percentage of adults die by suicide, suicide was the leading cause of death among youth aged 10-17 last year, according to statistics from the Utah Department of Health.
The conference coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10 and the 41st Annual National Suicide Prevention Week (September 7- 13, 2015).
WHAT: Preventing and Responding to Student Suicide: Promising Strategies for Schools
WHO: Dr. David Schonfeld, Director, National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement; Dr. Douglas Gray, Psychiatry Department, University of Utah School of Medicine; Anna Fondario and Elizabeth Brutsch, Violence and Injury Prevention Program, Utah Department of Health; Cathy Davis, Suicide Prevention Specialist, Utah State Office of Education (USOE); Kim Myers, Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health; Greg Hudnall, Executive Director of HOPE4UTAH.
WHEN: Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
WHERE: Red Lion Hotel, 161 600 S, Salt Lake City
