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Gun Violence Affects More Than Half of US Adults

More than half of US adults or their family members have encountered gun violence: they’ve been threatened with a firearm; they’ve witnessed a shooting; or a relative has been killed by a gun, including by suicide, according to nationally representative poll of 1271 people. Black adults were about twice as likely as White adults to report having seen someone being shot or to have had a relative who was killed by a gun in the Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

Suicide in young people: screening, risk assessment, and intervention

Abstract: Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among young people worldwide and the third leading cause of death among those in the US. This review outlines the epidemiology of suicide and suicidal behavior in young people. It discusses intersectionality as an emerging framework to guide research on prevention of suicide in young people and highlights several clinical and community settings that are prime targets for implementation of effective treatment programs and interventions aimed at rapidly reducing the suicide rate in young people. It provides an overview of current approaches to screening and assessment of suicide risk in young people and the commonly used screening tools and assessment measures. It discusses universal, selective, and indicated evidence based suicide focused interventions and highlights components of psychosocial interventions with the strongest evidence for reducing risk. Finally, the review discusses suicide prevention strategies in community settings and considers future research directions and questions challenging the field.