Adolescent Suicide:
What the Adults Can Do
Coralee Pringle‐Nelson, M.Ed.
Registered Psychologist
Coordinator: Counselling Services
Saskatoon Public Schools
Suicide is Complex
• There is no single cause
• There is no single solution
• There are few demographics that are invulnerable
• Relationships are the best mechanism to intervene around suicide
Living Works
• Best practice approach to suicide intervention
• SuicideTALK: Community suicide prevention focus
• “Should we talk about suicide?”
• Beliefs
• SafeTALK: Primary prevention focus
PC1
• Suicide alertness training
• The simple yet effective TALK steps
• ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training): Intervention focus
• Often used by professional helpers
Slide 3
PC1
Pringle-Nelson, Coralee, 3/2/2016
Adults: The Best Resource for Kids
• Attachment literature
• Brain development literature
Peers should not be carrying the weight of deep emotional problems for their friends.
Kids need to believe that the adults have it together and can help legitimately solve problems. Brains Still Under Construction
• Kids’ brains do not fully mature until their in their mid‐twenties
• Literature is CLEAR
• Healthy brain development is linked to healthy interpersonal relationships with primary care‐givers and adult supports
• Solid attachments tend to reduce anxiety, worry, and fear of failure in many children Attunement
• Feeling “felt”
• “…when a child is upset, logic won’t work until we have responded to the right brain’s emotional needs.” (Siegel, Payne Byson)
• Individuals’ brains are under development until the mid twenties
• Non‐verbal, non‐linear, not cause and effect, not black and white, sensing, intuiting, feeling
• Parents are key resources for children and adolescents across the life‐span
Intunement
Awareness +
Empathy _________________
INTUNEMENT Left Brain Adults (Beyond the mid‐20’s)
• Left‐brain adults – linear, logical, sequential, ordered, cause and effect
• Left‐brains do not communicate well with right brains, especially when one, the other or both are upset
• Children and adolescents are FEELING all the non‐verbals
• Adults are typically focused only on the words they say
Be emotion detectors first; then be fact detectors
• Why emotions first?
• Why facts second?
• The reason kids function in emotions
• The reason adults like facts
Emotions • Shame
Embarrassed to tell
• Fear
That they will be abandoned
• Worry
About letting people down/not measuring up
• Mixed‐up
Changeable emotions
• *Untrusting
That adults will take the threats seriously and that they will intervene courageously and with compassion
Keys to Connection with Adolescents
• Keep a CALM presence and a gentle, warm tone; use a slight smile
• Help them regulate
• Go for a walk, offer a crunchy snack, distract, tell a legitimately funny joke
• Reduce chaos in the environment
• Stay safely close – parallel or diagonal
• Be OK with the emotional response (it won’t likely look very logical or rational to you); you’ll care about them no matter what
• Intervene in the dip
• Repair when needed
Look for Openings
• What are you seeing, hearing, learning about or experiencing?
• Find ways to emotionally connect
• Demonstrate good listening by using focus, attention, reflective (non‐
judgmental) comments
• What to say when you hear about deep distress, overwhelm, hopelessness or helplessness • Ask • Ensure safety—doesn’t mean you have to solve the problems
• Professional counsellor, Crisis Intervention Services, ED
Summary and Conclusion