Document Type
Portfolio
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Goal Statement: The goal of this social change portfolio is to decrease the risk of suicidal ideation in Calvert County, MD by using preventative methods, let us help these adolescents before they become another statistic that could have been prevented. Significant Findings: In Calvert County, MD there are only 93,928 individuals, yet adolescent death by suicidal ideation is higher, 16.5 deaths per 100,000 individuals, than the national average, 10.2 deaths per 100,000 individuals (Data Commons, 2021b; Healthy Calvert, 2020). Those that are exposed to suicide are twice as likely have suicidal ideations compared to those who have not been exposed and nearly four times as likely to have PTSD (Cerel et al., 2016). There are various risk factors from the individual level through the societal levels with limited protective factors in place to support the residents of Calvert County. Ways to reach our goal would be to implement programs such as Youth-Nominated Support Team-Version II, focus on high risk groups (ie. transgenders), and advocate for adolescents in Calvert County by focusing on the various levels that are outlined in the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (Austin et al., 2020; Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies , 2015; Social Programs That Work, 2019).
Objectives/Strategies/Interventions/Next Steps: The first objective is to decrease suicidal ideation in Calvert County, Md from its current rate 16.5 deaths per 100,000 to the national average of 10.2 deaths per 100,000 individuals (Healthy Calvert, 2020). Once this objective is 4 complete, then the objective shifts to becoming less deaths per 100,000 than the national average. There are many interventions that can be put into place to decrease these statistics, the first intervention would be to create a Youth-Nominated Support Team-Version II (YST) program at Calvert Health Medical Center and MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital (Social Programs That Work, 2019). St. Marys Hospital is in the neighboring county but given there is only one hospital in Calvert County, many individuals from the county end up at St. Mary’s hospital because it is just as close to the southern end of the county, we want everyone to have a fair shot at being helped through the program. The next beneficial intervention would be to meet with the Board of Education to discuss how we can change the cirriculum to shift towards acknoledging mental health and creating more opportunities within the school system to discuss mental health disorder signs/symptoms and treatment. The next steps needed to achieve these objectives and interventions would be to assemble a collaboration team focused on seeing these objectives/interventions through, this team would include local counselors (school and mental health), staff from the psychiatric unit in the hospitals, members of the board of education, and youth who have recovered from suicidal ideation in the past—this is perhaps the most important members as they give a personal perspective on the lack of community resources that could have been beneficial.
