Suicide Prevention in Schools

Since 1986, the Los Angeles Unified School District has implemented a Gatekeeper-model youth suicide prevention program. The program seeks to improve identification of students who are at high risk of suicide and to enhance follow-up with appropriate services through training of school personnel and the provision of crisis intervention services. This study sought to better understand program participants. The authors examined randomly selected records from 1999 for 100 youths who received services from the program. Their review of records from the Los Angeles program suggests that Latino students may be underidentified by such a program.