- Researchers at the University of the Basque Country have studied the suicidal behavior of adolescents in foster care homes and have concluded that a quarter of young people have attempted suicide. They report that most staff have “low” knowledge.
According to the World Health Organization, suicide among adolescents and young people is a global public problem and is the leading cause of unnatural death among young people aged 15 to 29. Researchers from the UPV have talked with teenagers of 25 floors in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra about suicide. According to the study, 26.5% of young people have attempted suicide.
Adolescents living in foster care homes have “more” risk factors for suicidal behaviors, such as traumatic childhood experiences and “low” self-esteem. They have therefore concluded that it is “urgent” to develop strategies and resources to work with these young people. Alexander Muela, Doctor of Psychology, emphasizes that “very little” research has been researched: “Since so far we had very little data, we have carried out an innovative research whose results show the need for preventive tasks and the need for greater training of professionals”.
Need for emotional education
In total, the behavior of 185 adolescents has been studied, and a quarter of the young people have attempted suicide, a third have thought about it and half have performed self-harm without committing suicide. 92% say they do it to regulate emotions. “Emotional education must work and provide young people with strategies and resources to regulate emotions,” said Muela.
In addition, they have to be provided with resources and spaces to ask for help, as only 37.6% have asked for help and more than half feel that they cannot resort thanks to the help.
Staff training
In addition to talking to young people, they have taken the view of the workers. They ask 225 workers if they feel willing to identify and react appropriately to suicidal behaviour by young people. Most say they have “low” and only 22.8% say they have quite high knowledge or knowledge: “They have no preventive training, their main response is to go to health centers in case of an emergency. We cannot leave everything about the health system.” I mean, they don't know how to talk about the warning signs and what and how to ask young people. So they think the first step is to train staff.