I just found an amazing website that I thought I’d share with you. It’s called Counseling Youth With Depression. It seems like more and more students each year suffer from depression. . .well maybe it’s not more each year, but I think as a society we are more aware of those who are depressed and the need to help make life more manageable for them.
The Counseling Youth With Depression website is designed with school counselors in mind. The purpose is to provide resources and depression rating scales to counselors. An interesting fact that was posted is:
One of the most vulnerable groups for completed suicide is the 18-24 age group. Adolescent suicide is the second leading cause of death, following accidents, among youth and young adults in the U.S. It is estimated that 500,000 teens attempt suicide every year with 5,000 succeeding. Many of these teens suffer from depression.
One of the great features of the website is the resources that it links you up to. Several depression rating scales with a description of who it is best for and who can administer it, as well as lesson for school counselors to use on the topic of helping students understand depression as well as icebreakers and other get to know you activities.
I guess I never knew how many teens attempted suicide every year, even though I have had several students that I have administered the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale to. For more info about this free product and extremely useful tool, see this post. And in case you missed it, take a look at this post for more information about Kognito, an online program to help teachers determine how to refer kids in crisis to their counselor.
Do you have any tools that you use to determine the severity of depression a student is dealing with? If you do, please share. Leave a comment or join in the conversation through one of the ways below:
