The Action Alliance on Basic Education on Friday urged the government to step up measures to identify and prevent adolescent suicide, as reports of attempted suicides in that age group grew from 4,389 in 2015 to 14,547 last year.
The group cited statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which showed that suicide rates for Taiwanese between the ages of 15 and 24 have been increasing since 2015.
In 2015, adolescents represented 14.7 percent of all attempted suicides, but had reached 28.7 percent of all attempts by last year.
Photo: Taipei Times
Alliance president Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) cited reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stating that pediatricians should include psychiatric, emotional and behavioral issues as part of routine health examinations as an essential strategy for early detection and intervention.
Troubled adolescents often do not directly ask for help, but exhibit other symptoms, such as having irregular sleeping hours, eating more or less, becoming more irritable and refusing to study, Wang said.
Often, the issue is already critical if the teen asks for help or has already manifested obvious signs of distress, he added.
Wang said the government should take guidance from the AAP report and conduct routine physical and mental health checkups and screenings to identify and intervene earlier.
The strategy would not only lessen the burden on consultative services, but also allow a more systematic way to identify and categorize issues, he said, adding that under this method, schools couldconsider redirecting students with needs to specialized facilities.
Wang called on the public to recognize the growing dangers presented by deteriorating psychiatric health among adolescents and to strive to place more emphasis on prevention rather than acting after the fact.
People who are troubled by thoughts of suicide can seek help by calling the Taiwan Lifeline International-run hotline 1995. Information on suicide prevention can be found on Taiwan Lifeline’s Web site: www.life1995.org.tw.
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