Nothing About them Without Them: Partnering with Youth in Creating a Statewide Youth Centered Suicide Prevention Campaign

Body of Abstract: The New Jersey Readiness to Stand United Against Youth Suicide (NJR2S Challenge) is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention Grant and is a collaborative project formed by state agencies, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions that are working together to prevent youth suicide and improve youth mental health care access, treatment and awareness. The project's goals include improving a youth (10-24) resiliency and protective factors; increase the identification of youth at risk for suicide, improve the skill and care provided by clinicians and other youth serving professionals and increase continuity of care for youth at risk for suicide or who have had a suicide attempt. Written just prior to the pandemic, we already were seeing a national increase in youth mental health problems. According to the 2021 Surgeon General's Report: From 2009 to 2019, high school students reporting feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased 40% to more than 1 in 3 students; suicidal ideation and attempts increased with 19% considering attempting suicide (36% increase), 16% having made a suicide plan in the prior year (44% increase), and a 57% increase in the youth suicide rate (10-24) from 2007-2018. This data propelled us to look at where the gaps were in the NJ system of care and public health messaging and come up with a plan to close those gaps.

Across the nation, suicide disproportionately affects youth of color, LGBTIAQ+ youth and youth with who face other adversities such as homelessness, human trafficking and mental health issues. The goal of the Suicide Prevention Youth Planning Committee is to create a suicide prevention and awareness campaign that centers and lifts youth voice with specific emphasis on those young people who are at the greatest risk. Working in partnership with a minority owned and operated social media company youth met for 8 weeks over the summer to develop a campaign that will be launched throughout the state. The concepts of health, racial, gender, and sexual orientation inequities were a strong theme for the group.

The New Jersey GLS Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention Grant Program addresses the need for increased clinical capacity to address the mental health needs of adolescents and young adults, public health awareness and prevention of youth suicide, district level suicide prevention, intervention and postvention and the need for youth to be directly engaged in the messaging that reaches their peers. In 2019, the NJ Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council, a legislatively mandated council, identified the availability of funds and highlighted the gaps in the NJ system of care including the lack of public health messaging regarding youth suicide. The council, determined that NJ should apply for funding and the NJDOH agreed to take the lead. Multiple state agencies and community based organizations serve on the council and together we created a plan for the grant application and established the service deliverables and desired outcomes. Included in this plan was the creation of a youth suicide prevention and awareness campaign for youth by youth.

As a Health Department, partnership on all levels is paramount. As the Child and Adolescent Health Program, partnering with adolescents and young adults in crafting and disseminating public health messaging is essential to the success of our efforts and provides opportunities for AYAH's to lead, address public health messaging and policy and create change for their communities. To craft this campaign, a Youth Planning Committee comprised of adolescents and young adults who have either lived experience or are advocates for youth mental health and suicide prevention to craft the campaign with the assistance of a sub-awardee The NJ American Academy of Pediatrics (NJAAP) and a media company.

NJAAP has been a long-standing partner with the NJDOH, as the sub-awardee for our Youth Suicide Prevention Grant NJAAP was tasked with hiring youth consultants, forming a Youth Planning Committee and hiring a social media company to work with a group of youth to develop the campaign. NJAAP has a strong connection to the state with contracts from multiple state agencies and hosts several events that focus on both medical providers as well as school-based professionals. Their vast network of partners, diverse staff and history of success made them the best collaborator for this project.

All the youth on the planning committee have various levels of lived experience, as do the staff of NJAAP and Neta Collab, the social marketing company that worked with youth to design the campaign. In addition, all the panelists on this workshop have lived experience as parents/caregivers of loved ones with mental health/suicidal ideation, the loss of a loved one to suicide or personal experience with mental health challenges/ suicidal ideation. This is an example of how lived experience is valued and showcased through the collaborative work of this project.

Learning Objectives:

• This workshop will identify the core components to successfully engaging youth in suicide prevention messaging.
• This workshop will demonstrate how effectively engaging parents and caregivers can improve a youth's experience and support outside of the suicide prevention work completed.
• This workshop will discuss the importance of lived experience and youth voice in suicide prevention and awareness campaigns that are for youth by youth.
• This workshop will share data analyzed through participant survey completion and parent caregiver focus groups.