Preventing Juvenile Suicide Through Improved Collaboration: Strategies for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Agencies provides guidance for effectively preventing suicide among youth in the juvenile justice system. These can be successfully achieved through the combined collaboration of juvenile justice, law enforcement, mental health, substance use treatment, child welfare, and education agencies and organizations.
In recognition of the higher rate of suicide and suicidal behaviors among youth involved in the juvenile justice system who have behavioral health conditions and other relevant risk factors for suicide (e.g., a history of child sexual and physical abuse and other forms of trauma), this document provides critical information for all youth-serving systems to effectively collaborate across all levels of government. The collaboration will likely save the lives of vulnerable youth by creating opportunities to intervene prior to the youth engaging in suicidal behaviors and greatly enhances the provision of appropriate and effective supports and services. Implementing the strategies recommended in this paper will enable systems and practitioners to reduce the risk of youth suicide while achieving the collaborations necessary for sustained positive suicide prevention strategies.
The National Center for Youth Opportunity and Justice (NCYOJ) originally developed and maintained this resource. The NCYOJ was operated by Policy Research, Inc. and operated from 2001 to 2022 and was formerly known as the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. The NCYOJ improved life opportunities for youth through systems and practice improvement initiatives.
This resource should be viewed as a reference document. It has not been updated since its publication. In addition, this document has not been made 508 compliant. If you would like a 508 compliant version of this document, please email communications@prainc.com.
This resource was first shared in 2013.
Citation
National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System Task Force. (2013). Preventing juvenile suicide through improved collaboration: Strategies for mental health and juvenile justice agencies (Summary of recommendations). Washington, DC: Author.
(PDF, 300KB)