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In the devastating aftermath of teen suicide, a community typically turns to its schools for guidance. School professionals have had to mobilize and respond despite a dearth of evidence-based resources to support them.

This year, new consensus-based tools — developed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center – have been released to fill the information void.

Schools & Teen Suicide: How to Effectively Respond to Crisis and Help Prevent Future Tragedies focused on how schools can implement proven strategies to address real-time crises, avoid suicide contagion, and prevent future tragedies.

Listen to Marian Sheridan, Coordinator of School Health and Safety Programs in the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin School District and Joanne L. Harpel, Senior Director for Public Affairs and Postvention at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention as they discuss for this critically important issue.

Speakers

Marian Sheridan
Marian Sheridan is the Coordinator of School Health and Safety Programs for the Fond duLac School District in Wisconsin.  She has had more than 25 years of public health experience and has been a strong advocate and leader for health initiatives that address the physical, mental and social well-being and needs of the community.

Ms. Sheridan is the Program Director for the Emotional Health Screening Program in Fond du Lac. Since the inception of the TeenScreen Program in 2001-2002, there have been more than 2,500 students that have participated in the screening.  The long-term goal of the project is that every child in Fond du Lac County will be offered the opportunity for a mental health screen before they graduate. Currently TeenScreen is being implemented in Fond du Lac county at seven public and private high schools, two alternative high schools, a middle school referral program, family and pediatric practices and through Juvenile Intake.

Joanne L. Harpel, J.D., M.Phil.
Joanne Harpel is the Senior Director for Public Affairs and Postvention for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).  She joined the AFSP in 2002 as its first-ever Director of Survivor Initiatives, after having served for many years on AFSP’s Board of Directors.  She is a survivor herself, having lost her brother, Stephen, to suicide in 1993.

Ms. Harpel is responsible for the full spectrum of AFSP’s initiatives relating to the aftermath of suicide, including International Survivors of Suicide Day (which takes place annually in over 275 cities throughout the world); the Support Group Facilitator Training Program (which has been attended by over 1,000 individuals to date); the Survivor Outreach Program (which has trained hundreds of survivors nationwide to make home visits to the newly-bereaved); collaborating on the development of a research agenda relating to bereavement after suicide; and partnering with the federally-funded Suicide Prevention Resource Center to create an online resource for use by schools following suicide in a school community.

She is a frequent media spokesperson and lecturer throughout the country, including at the United Nations and the American Psychiatric Association, and has collaborated with organizations ranging from the National Institute of Mental Health and World Health Organization to HBO and Sesame Street.   In addition, she oversees AFSP’s public affairs efforts, including constituency relations, media relations, communications, and social media.

Before joining AFSP, Ms. Harpel was a litigation attorney with the law firm of Proskauer Rose LLP in New York City, and later was Vice President of the Panels Management Group of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, a non-profit think tank.  She holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, and a B.A. with honors in Political Science from Amherst College.