When teenagers talk about suicide or try to end their lives, their parents often take them to hospital emergency rooms for evaluation. The good news is that 95% of them visit a mental health professional within a month, according to a new study from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
- Dr. Brad Soblewski studied suicidal children ages 11 to 18 years old who had been assessed by emergency room doctors.
- Nearly 95% of them visited mental health professionals within the next 30 days.
- About 20% eventually went back to their ERs for mental health problems, and most of the ones in this group were admitted to psychiatric wards within the hospital.
- About 30% of the teenagers continued to have suicidal thoughts and behaviors after their first ER visit.
Most parents gave high marks to the way their children were treated by ER professionals.
The study was presented at the Academy of Pediatrics National Conference.
Labels: suicide
Posted By: CRC Health