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Abstract
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Adolescent suicide by firearm imposes devastating losses to families and society, killing more than 1000 10- to 19-year-old children and adolescents annually in the United States. Youth suicide rates between 1999 and 2014 have tripled for 10- to 14-year-olds and increased by 50% for 15- to 24-year-old youth.1 This preventable injury is still a leading cause of death in this age group.2
Household firearms create a suicide (and homicide) risk to all children and adults in a home.3 Given the much higher relative risk to individuals with mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders,4 a focus on families with high-risk adolescents merits top priority.
The interaction of guns, mental health, and injury is a topic of national interest. Mainly, the focus is preventing assault injuries and deaths through criminal background checks to restrict gun sales to high-risk individuals. For self-inflicted firearm injury among adults, restrictions are complicated by the challenges of limiting household access. For youth, however, parents and caretakers have a key responsibility in preventing gun access. Exercising this responsibility is critical because self-harm is generally more impulsive and with lower levels of intent in adolescents compared with adults.5
Restricting teenager access to guns in the home is a potentially promising strategy for families with high-risk adolescents.6,7 A hypothetical framework for an effective strategy would be for families to: (1) be aware of potential risks to household members posed by unlocked guns in the home and how risk is greatly amplified for teenagers with depression or substance abuse; (2) be ready to be engage in discussion to eliminate access to guns in the home (and in homes of families and friends frequented by the teenager) by storing them in locked firearm safes or handgun lockboxes or outside the home; and (3) have access to effective treatment and longitudinal care for teenagers with mental health and substance abuse conditions, working toward remission and reducing self-harm risk. This framework, of course, must be confirmed with stronger evidence of effectiveness...
Language: en |