BY SUZANNE KEENE
LANCASTER - About 25
counselors, health workers and
teachers gathered in Lancaster
this week to talk about one of the
leading causes of teenage death -
suicide.
Every year in the United States
more than 5,000 young people aged
13 to 24 commit suicide. An
estimated additional 400,000 make
unsuccessful attempts.
In an effort to prevent such
deaths, a study-action team from
Lancaster’s Family and Children’s
Service developed a lesson plan on
adolescent suicide titled “Project
Alive: Adolescent Suicide
Prevention.”
Debra Meckley, a counselor at
Family and Children’s Service and
a member of the study team,
conducted this week’s seminar
which outlined factors contributing
to adolescent suicide, warning
signs of suicide, methods of
dealing with potentially suicidal
adolescents and coping skills for
teenagers.
Meckley said the project began
when an eighth-grade boy com
mitted suicide at a county high
school three years ago. Everyone,
she said, felt really unprepared to
deal with the situation and with the
questions the other students were
asking.
In the three years since that
incident, Meckley has collected 192
questions about suicide from teens.
“The kids had a lot of questions
and were eager to talk,” she said.
While some people argue that
talking about suicide encourages
people to try it, Meckley disagrees.
Minute Vacations
It’s that time of year when all of
us begin daydreaming about
summer vacation (especially those
in school)! We look forward to time
at the beach, weekends in the
mountains or trips to other states
as opportunities to relax and un
wind.
Have you ever considered
minute vacations? Many of us need
to take short minute vacations to
get us through a busy, stressful
day! What do you do with these
tiny capsules of time, these sixty
second pieces? I’ve become more
aware of little chunks of time as
I’ve recently spent minutes
waiting in doctor’s offices and lines
in the grocery stores. Many of us
ignore these spots of time or en
dure them as necessary boredom
instead of using them as op
portunities for mini-vacations.
Take, for example, the television
commercial. It’s been calculated
that by the time a child reaches
high school he or she has viewed
over 18,000 commercials. At one or
two minutes each, that’s a lot of
time. Now I have a friend who
wisely uses the cue of a com
mercial to do exercises; like sit
ups or leg stretches (as opposed to
running to the refrigerator).
Odd pieces of time occur
everywhere, like little jewels
scattered throughout the day. I
know 1 find myself struggling to
Project Alive - e plan to prevent adolescent suicide
"I don’t think you’re putting
ideas in kids’ heads by talking
about it,” she said. “The child has
already had that idea.”
Meckley said the highest com
pleted and attempted suicide rates
are among famililes with single,
divorced or widowed parents.
Many of the teens in such family
circumstances behve they are in
some way responsible for the
situation.
“The important point you have
to get through to those kids is it
isn’t their fault,” Meckley
stressed.
Adults can help teens cope by
assisting them in developing a
substitute relationship with
another adult like a big brother or
sister, she added.
Presenting a troubled youth with
several viable options to suicide
and then allowing him to make a
decision about his life is another
way adults can help. This, she
continued, gives the youth the
message that he is a competent
person who can make his own
decisions.
Often the teen just needs to talk
about himself and his problems.
“Just be willing to sit and
listen,” Meckley advised.
A teens’ behavior is often a clue
to his distress, she said. Symptoms
that indicate a serious problem
include;
• A drastic change in appetite
• A loss of interest in normal
activities
• A serious loss of memory
• Fatigue or chronic listlessness
• Disrupted sleep or insomnia
• Pain for no obvious reason
By Michelle S. Rodgers
Lancaster Extension
Home Economist
get the little things done from day
to day... thank you notes written,
buttons stitched back in place and
sorting of coupons.
If you, too, find yourself needing
a mini-break try some of these
suggestions:
Stationery Kit: Place stamps,
stationary and pen in a small bag
to snatch at a'minute’s notice and
let your creative powers flow.
Reading Catchup: Clip out that
article you’d like to read or try that
book you’ve had on your wish list
and keep it in the car or your purse
for a minute or two vacation.
Coupon Kit: While you’re on
‘hold” sort coupons into piles and
stash them for the next trip to the
grocery store.
Anything New: Use the minutes
at meal time to have each person
share one new thing they have
learned today. This expands
everyone’s horizons.
Silence Is Golden- In a quiet
moment of the day, focusing on
any one sense can be a minute
vacation. What do you see that you
fail to see at other tunes...
spnntime buds, goldfinches in a
nearby tree 9
Taking these mini-vacations
does take practice. For those of
you who are task-oriented as I am
take a break, snatch a minute or
two for the vacation of your
lifetime
3 a
A-l
• Preoccupation with sad
thoughts or thinking and talking
about death
• An inclination to give away
objects of value
Any of these can be a way of
making someone hear their
despair, Meckely warned.
According to the study guide, in
many suicide attempts, “the
adolescent feels hopeless, thinks
there is no way out of a terrible
situation, feels worthless, as if he
or she is nothing and that no one
cares and feels helpless, powerless
and not in control of his or her
life.”
Suicidal people,” it continues,
somehow loose perspective and
need to feel and understand that
others do care and do want to
help."
Some cries for help are indirect
and easy to miss, Meckley warned.
“There is no way to know for
sure if someone is going to try it or
not,” she added.
Meckley said that when a person
tells her they have a definite plan
for committing suicide, she con
siders the problem more serious
than if the individual is simply
threatening to kill himself. But
either way, “be serious about it,”
she advised. ‘lt’s important not to
have a cavalier attitude about it."
Need for adequate daycare
HARRISBURG Reliable care
for family members is really
everybody’s problem, more so as
women enter the labor market in
ever-increasing numbers.
“There is no valid research that
points to the return of the majority
of women to full-time caregiving at
home,” Christine Crist, director of
the Pennsylvania Commission for
Women, said “Although those who
are able to choose the traditional
role should be given every en
couragement to do so, most women
are working outside as well as
inside the home, and even more
are intending to, the data show.
The nostalgic yearning for the
good old days apparently is not
shared by most women.
Recognizing this, the Commission
is looking into the ways employers,
communities, and families are
trying to meet the growing demand
for day care.”
Recent research done by Get
tysburg College senior Maria
Palombo, while an intern with the
Commission for Women,
documents the need for more day
care. Palombo defines day care, a
service often misconceived as a
type of nursery school, as “...full
or part-time care during the day or
night for children under 18 years or
for adults of 18 years and older who
require some supervision Services
for day care range from in-home
care provided in the home of the
child or adult, to family hotw“ care
offered in the home of the provider,
to care offered by a staff in a day
care center.”
Palombo cites statistics com
piled by the Women’s Bureau of
y
jJr r
s-
Debra Meckley, a counselor at Family and Children's
Service, tells Lancaster teachers and counselors how they
can detect and help suicidal youth.
the U.S. Department of Labor, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
National Commission on Working
Women, and other groups to
illustrate the nationwide
demographical changes that have
made women a group that requires
these services. She found that 50
percent of adult women, SO percent
of women with children under six,
and 66 percent of mothers of
school-aged children work outside
the home. Furthermore, 90 percent
of all single parent households are
headed by women, 80 percent of all
persopns over 65 have a surviving
child being called on for care, and
almost 8.5 million disabled adults
depend on other adults.
The traditional family, pictured
with the mother in the home giving
primary care to children and
dependent adults, is no longer the
norm. The economic necessity
which contributed to this swing is
not expected to diminish. In fact,
“Working Mother” in October,
1983 predicted that another 1.5
million children under six will
have mothers in the workforce by
1990.
The need for formalized day care
has escalated also as a result of
another demographic change. In
1958, 57 percent of preschool
children were cared for by a
relative. By 1982, this percentage
had dropped to 29 percent, a drop
partially attributed by Palombo to
the high mobility of our society in
the recent decades.
Are these needs being met?
Palombo contents they are not.
Help from the government has
come in the form of tax credits,
is growing
subsidies, and assistance
programs, but Palombo concludes
that they are not sufficient
and suggests that initiatives must
come from the private sector and
individual employers as well.
“The implementation of the
federal and industry-sponsored
day care programs (during World
War II) offers proof that, (in this
way), the United States can meet
the demands for day care.”
Despite a surge in the number of
private day care centers, demand
exceeds supply. Much of this gap
may be attributable to problems
like the costs of providing good
care translating into fees many
women cannot afford and the
reluctant acceptance by society of
the concept of generations of
children growing up outside the
home.
However, another contributing
factor is the sheer lack of structure
m the field. As on any business
frontier, suppliers are cautiously
determining the delicate balance
point at which their service is
desirable, lucrative, and not over
priced. Meanwhile, it seems
service suppliers’ entrance into the
market may remain slow.
What are some of the solutions
emerging in the private sector?
Traditional Care
The number of traditional day
care centers is growing, if slowly.
More education is available for
those who wish to establish in
home care. Community Centers
are striving to meet the more
varied needs by providing tran
sportation for after-school
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