Suicide prevention and mental health promotion in adolescents: Lessons learned from the SEYLE “Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe” program

Abstract

Introduction

The “Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe” (SEYLE) has gathered 12,395 high school students in 10 countries (including 1007 students in the Lorraine Region). It has been funded by the FP7 European program and coordinated by the Karolinska Institute. Its main goals were to encourage teenagers to adopt healthier behaviors by reducing risk behaviors and suicidal behaviors, to assess the benefits from various prevention programs and recommend evidence based and culturally adapted mental health promotion programs for teenagers.

Inclusion and method

SEYLE is a randomized control trial evaluating 3 mental health prevention programs:

– a program training school staff to identify and refer students at suicidal risk (QPR);

– a mental health sensibilization program, aimed at the students (the Awareness program);

– a mental health professional screening program, through self-report questionnaires and clinical interview.

These prevention programs were compared to a minimal intervention control group. The students (aged 14–16 years old) filled a 127 items questionnaire at Baseline, M3 and M12.

Results

The most salient results of this research have shown:

– the efficacy on suicidal behaviors of prevention programs in schools, in particular the Awareness program (the mental health sensibilization universal program);

– the existence of an invisible group of students at risk (highly sedentary students with poor sleep and media overexposure);

– a high prevalence of depressive (10.5%) and (5.8%) anxious symptoms as well as non-suicidal injuries (7.8%) in European adolescents.

Discussion and perspectives

This study has provided evidence of the efficiency of mental health awareness programs in schools to decrease the number of suicides and suicidal behaviors in teenagers and to better identify “at risk” students.

Disclosure of interest

The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest concerning this article.