Describes Youth Emergency Services (YES), an experimental project in Rochester, New York, which coordinates county agencies and resources to treat children and their families in mental crises. Several case vignettes illustrate the enhanced coordination which results from the YES system. (MM)

Expands understanding of social support by addressing the communicative use of support in a community program for troubled teens. Presents the ways in which the organization accomplishes and constructs support. Identifies and explores two novel aspects of supportive communication: supportive communication that may be perceived as uncomfortable and…

After the Great Flood of 1993, crisis outreach services included casefinding, information and referral, community education, screening, counseling, mental health training, consultation, community organization, and advocacy. In two surveys, survivors rated their satisfaction with service appropriateness, clarity, timeliness, impact, and…

Surveys college students (N=119) to examine psychosocial predictors of interventions to prevent drunk driving. Results show that the level of comparative impairment between the intervenor and the drunk driver, the sense of moral/social obligation to intervene, and the number of people consulted about the intervention significantly predicted…

This article explains skills and abilities that teachers require to effectively manage a classroom that includes students with emotional and behavior disorders and to develop a curriculum of behavior management. Discussed are techniques for preventing student misbehavior, teaching new behaviors, handling crises, and managing conflict. (DB)

Psychiatric inpatients admitted for suicidal danger were surveyed regarding their views on the benefits/limitations of written no-suicide agreements. These inpatients, for the most part, rated written no-suicide agreements in a positive manner and in ways consistent with clinical opinion expressed in a number of qualitative/expert opinion…

Surveyed 186 high school counselors to assess their perceived self-efficacy in recognizing students at risk for suicide. Most counselors believed it was their role to recognize students at risk, however, only one in three believed they could recognize a student at risk. High efficacy-expectations significantly related to working at a high school…

One of the first steps psychologists can take toward making themselves indispensable in the schools is to actively participate in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of crisis intervention teams. Unless effective crisis intervention strategies are instituted, the educational process comes to a standstill. School psychologists need to play…

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that for every high school of 2,000 or more students in the United States, there is at least one successful suicide and thirty to fifty attempts each year. This report offers one state's examination of suicide and presents some effective responses to this problem. Discussed are those…

Recent statistics indicate that a high school of 2000 students will experience an average of one student suicide every four years. This paper reviews and synthesizes relevant information on issues in school response to student suicide and sudden death. Highlighted are risk factors that school personnel can identify in suicide-prone students,…

This monograph has been designed to meet the needs of students and schools for viable approaches to the growing stresses they must contend with in today's society. Its purpose is to respond to an expressed need for: (1) a collection of the best available resources on developing student support groups; (2) information on and examples of effectively…

This document consists of one module extracted from a six-module larger work. Module 3 consists of seven articles on developing and offering student self-help support groups. Article titles and authors are as follows: (1) "Youth Engaged in Self-Help: A Guide for Starting Youth Self-Help Groups" (Mary K. Parkinson, Nancy Sax); (2)…

Suggestions to help school administrators develop and implement a systematic crisis response system are provided in this guidebook, which focuses on system organization rather than staff training. The guidelines are designed to help administrators prepare for, manage, and evaluate site-based responses to various crisis situations, specifically,…

This digest considers how counselors and educators can cope with the emotional needs of suicide survivors and prevent future suicides among students. It discusses self-destructive tendencies in youth and behavioral manifestations of loss; offers suggestions to counselors for managing the first 48 hours following a suicide or loss and lists…

This report describes how, in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health activated its Emergency Preparedness Plan to assist mental health centers and their staff in providing crisis counseling services to the general public. The first section explains the history and structure of the involvement by the…