Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people and increasing numbers of young people are reporting suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The implementation of evidence-based suicide prevention approaches is a pressing public health priority!
The Youth-Nominated Support Team (YST) intervention is an evidence-based adjunctive intervention for young people with elevated suicide risk. You may be interested in watching this TedTALK, which provides a brief, engaging overview of YST.
YST is designed to increase youth’s connectedness with supportive adults in their lives. Its three key components are: (1) involving youth-nominated adults as support persons; (2) providing education, tailored resources, and ongoing support to these adults to help them support youth effectively; and (3) facilitating regular meaningful contact between youth and caring adults. YST supplements traditional mental health treatments (e.g., therapy, medication).
We have carefully studied the impact of YST over many years. We have learned that youth who participated experienced a more rapid reduction in suicidal thoughts and more engagement in recommended treatments during the following year. Across the long-term (11-14 years), adolescents who participated in YST had lower overall mortality, as well as self-injury mortality (i.e., suicides and drug overdoses).
