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Home > About MYSPP > Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles

Youth suicide and suicidal behavior IS a serious public health issue in our state. The following principles guide the operation of the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program.

  • Do no harm.
  • Build on a framework such as the Surgeon General’s National Strategy to guide planning. Use researched approaches and best practice models where available.
  • Use a comprehensive approach to impact youth suicide.
  • Work with those doing related work to identify and build on existing strengths to integrate suicide prevention activities.
  • Listen to needs expressed by stakeholders and modify programs to meet their needs.
  • Use self-inflicted injury and suicide data to increase understanding of the problem.

Of utmost importance is the principle of Do No Harm. It is imperative to ensure the safety of youth, insofar as possible, when conducting youth suicide prevention activities.
This means that before any direct suicide prevention education is done with students, it is essential to have suicide prevention and crisis intervention supports in place to identify and help young people at risk of suicide.

When working directly with youth, always ensure connections to supports for them.
It is important to remember to:

  • Destigmatize help seeking, especially for males.
  • Train students to TELL a responsible adult about a peer who may be suicidal.
  • Stress the most basic steps of “what you can do”.
    1. Show you care.
    2. Ask about suicide.
    3. Get help.
  • Work with young people only after the adults who work with them are trained to identify and respond helpfully to suicidal behaviors. When youth turn to adults for help for themselves or others, it is essential that the adults be prepared to respond appropriately.
  • Not offer suicide prevention presentations to large groups of youth. In a large group setting, it is almost impossible to observe how the information impacts those youth in the audience who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts and this can put them at increased risk.
  • Discourage communities that have just experienced a death by suicide to talk about suicide prevention…to youth or adults. When a suicide has just occurred, focus needs to be placed on crisis intervention and grieving, it is not the time for prevention education.
  • Avoid dramatizing a suicide act, particularly by having actors come out afterwards to talk with the audience. This only serves to feed into youths’ fantasies of being around to see the impact of their suicides. It can be helpful to provide youth with opportunities to practice a helping intervention in a structured, controlled environment. If so, do not to put youth actors in the role of a suicidal person.
  • Not justify suicide by offering reasons for the suicidal behavior. Suicide is never a good solution to one’s problems and is not one that most young people choose. Adults need to clearly state this to young people.
  • Guard against showcasing those who attempt suicide. This may lead to suicide contagion or suicide clusters. Youth who are already struggling may see the attention generated in this way and believe that their suicidal behavior will garner “celebrity” status.
  • Not discuss the high incidence of suicide attempts or suicidal thinking among youth as that may make it seem like a common response to one’s problems.  Statistics about non-fatal and fatal suicidal behavior are more appropriate for adult audiences.