Not enough, but more are learning everyday. YSPP works to teach professionals, parents, educators, clergy and especially young people. We believe that middle & high school students and college students can and should learn the warning signs and intervention strategies to help their friends. We don’t expect them to conduct a professional assessment but we want them to befriend a person in despair and offer support and reassurance and referral to help.

Someone who is suicidal feels overwhelmingly alone, isolated, helpless and without hope. They feel as though they can no longer cope with problems and suicide may seem to be a way out. Many people think about suicide at some point in their lives. But they find these thoughts are temporary as gradually, things do get better. However, that does NOT mean you should ignore suicidal feelings in yourself or someone else.

Answer: People do have the power to commit suicide. Suicide and attempted suicide are not criminalized. Each and every year, in the United States alone, there are more suicides than homicides. Suicide is a tragic, individual act. Euthanasia is not about a private act. It's about letting one person facilitate the death of another. That is a matter of very public concern since it can lead to tremendous abuse, exploitation and erosion of care for the most vulnerable people among us.

According to the American Association of Suicidology's report U.S.A. Suicide: 2003 Official Final Data, 31,484 people committed suicide in that year. The number of suicides in that year was greater than the number of homicides. According to an estimate by the US Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 16,582 homicides in that year.

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People do have the power to commit suicide. Worldwide, about a million people commit suicide annually.(5) Suicide and attempted suicide are not criminalized. Each and every year, in the United States alone, there are 1.5 times as many suicides as there are homicides.(6) And suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in Great Britain.(7) Suicide is an all too common tragic, individual act.

Suicide is the number one cause of premature death among people with schizophrenia, with an estimated 10 percent to 13 percent killing themselves. Suicide is even more pervasive in individuals with bipolar disorder, with 15 percent to 17 percent taking their own lives. The extreme depression and psychoses that can result due to lack of treatment are the usual causes of death. These suicides rates can be compared to the general population, which is somewhere around 1 percent.

Can anybody be tested for HIV? Where can this be done? Answers: HIV is a virus that can be present in someone for up to 15 or more years before resulting in AIDS. AIDS is a disease caused by HIV and is an advanced form of HIV infection. Because there is no cure for HIV and AIDS, HIV infection will always end up causing the disease AIDS. However, with all of the new treatments available, this can be postponed to the point where we now do not know how long we can prevent HIV from becoming AIDS.

change in the color or feel of the skin of the breast or nipple (dimpled, puckered or scaly; warm, red or swollen). It's important to note that there may be no warning signs or symptoms. Breast self-exams, clinical breast exams and regularly scheduled mammograms are vital in the screening and early detection of the disease.

It is important to note that most suicidal people, no matter what their age, suffer from some degree of depression. In young people the depression often goes undiagnosed until a crisis occurs. Depression may leave a person feeling drained, “too tired” to carry out a suicide plan of action. When the depression begins to lift and you notice a sudden improvement, be warned that this could be a very dangerous time.

Death provides no escape. The hard-core truth; you cannot kill yourself. Your essence, your state of mind, and consciousness remain, with full knowledge of why you took your life in the first place. Suicide won't solve any of the problems, it only eliminates the body as a place or means in which to work things out. And the concept of curtailing one's own life span "before the allotted time" is very real. There is a blueprint.

No. Most people who suffer from depression do not attempt suicide, but according to the National Mental Health Association, 30-70% of suicide victims have suffered from some form of depression. This figure demonstrates the importance of seeking professional treatment for yourself or someone you love if you suspect depression.

The answer depends upon the relationship they had with Christ before taking their own life. The truth is even Christians can suffer from great depression and heartbreaks. It is my opinion that people who commit suicide are not thinking rationally. When a person commits suicide, it is a lose-lose situation. Not only does the person lose his or her life, but the people in that person’s life are also left with a sense of loss.

Answer: Neither suicide nor attempted suicide are criminalized anywhere in the United States or in many other countries, but not because of any "right" to suicide. When penalties against attempted suicide were removed, legal scholars made it clear that this was not done for the purpose of permitting suicide. Instead it was intended to prevent suicide.

We don’t know for sure, because when youth die by suicide they take the answers with them. But teens who attempt suicide and survive tell us that they wanted to die to end the pain of living. They are often experiencing a number of stressors and feel that they do not have the strength or desire to continue living. We also believe that the majority of youth who die by suicide have a mental disorder, like depression, which is often undiagnosed, untreated or both.

No. I have wanted to give up. I have told God that I was tired and would love to be with him if he wanted to send for me, but I never actually tried to end my life. The baggage a person carries along with paralysis beats on his/her self esteem daily. It can eat away at a person until it destroys him or her. That's why it's so important to have goals that you actively work on achieving. Dreaming isn't enough.

If you experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, angina (pain in the chest or other areas), dizziness, black out spells, palpitations, fatigue, swelling of the extremities (especially the legs and feet) contact your physician and schedule an appointment as soon as possible.

Stroke is generally characterized by sudden visual disturbances, including blocked or loss of vision in one eye, blurry vision or "graying"; weakness, numbness or clumsiness in one arm or hand; language problems, including slurred speech; facial droop or weakness; dizziness or stumbling; or the abrupt onset of a severe headache.

If you see any of these signs, you may be dealing with a life-threatening emergency. Have someone call for immediate medical assistance while you begin cooling the victim. Do the following: Cool the victim rapidly, using whatever methods you can.

A stroke is an injury to the brain that may also severely affect the body. A stroke happens when blood supply to part of the brain is cut off or when there is bleeding into or around the brain. This can happen if a blood clot blocks an artery in the brain or neck or if a weakened artery bursts in the brain. Risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, smoking, heart disease, diabetes, and a high red blood cell count. The risk of stroke also increases with age.

If you think you have a hearing loss, please contact your physician soon. In some cases, hearing loss can be prevented from worsening. back to top

Warning signs of liver failure may include, but are not limited to, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, dark urine, or generalized skin and eye discoloration. Based on data known at present, the warning signs are most likely to be present while taking the drug or soon after stopping it.

The signs of a heart attack usually occur at the time of the event and usually involve chest pain (also squeezing, pressure, burning, or heaviness). There can also be radiation of the pain to the left arm, throat or jaw, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating, nausea, and fainting. Unfortunately sudden death due to cardiac arrest can also be the first symptom. There are also "silent heart attacks" where there are no symptoms but the heart attack is discovered on a routine EKG.

Chest, arm, upper abdomen or jaw pain, nausea and sweating often precede a heart attack. – American Heart Association

Any change in the normal appearance or texture of a woman’s breast may be an indication of breast cancer and should be examined by a physician. Common warning signs of breast cancer include a lump in the breast, an abnormal thickening of the breast tissue, or a change in density of the breast. Occasionally, breast cancer may be indicated by a lump under the arm, a redness of the skin over the breast, a change of the nipple (such as discharge or inversion), or a dimpling of the breast skin.

It is most important to examine your child's teeth as the permanent teeth grow in. Although children mature at different rates, there are some averages for permanent tooth arrival.