SPTS | Blog

The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide shares the concerns of several mental health counselors, experts in the field of suicidology, and fellow prevention organizations about the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. Unfortunately, the media tends to glamorize and sensationalize suicide. Glamorizing suicide has significant negative impact on children, adolescents, adults or anyone who is having suicidal thoughts. This is precisely why the media must be responsible and follow the safe messaging guidelines. We…
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For the second annual You Are Not Alone social media campaign, SPTS encourages you to let teens worldwide know that they are never alone on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  The call to action is simple: link your Twitter and Facebook accounts to our Thunderclap page. By linking your account to the campaign, a post will be automatically sent out on December 2 at 4:00 PM saying “Spread the word: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Post a…
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On Friday, May 13th, the SPTS Youth Council met for the final time to conclude it's year long initiative of promoting suicide prevention awareness. With a goal to help #saveteens, more than 60 students from Monmouth and Ocean County High Schools participated in the inaugural year of the council. Students from varying high schools, both public and private, came together to work on projects such as social media campaigns, fundraising, and the 2016 Youth Wellness…
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Months of work from the Youth Council and SPTS certainly paid off at the Monmouth County Youth Wellness Summit on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at Neptune High School. There were free t-shirts, tons of good food and an amazing keynote speaker. For a high school student, these three things always mean a great day. I was lucky to be one of the more than 140 students to attend the summit. Upon entrance, all student attendees were…
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By Stacy Brief, High School Student On April 7, 2016, Maureen Underwood attended my high school in Bellmore, NY to present to the peer leader classes on suicide prevention. On Thursday morning, Maureen arrived at Mepham High School equipped with many "tools" to pass on to the juniors and seniors attending the training sessions in how to safely and accurately handle a situation in which a peer is struggling with the idea of suicide. The…
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SPTS Community lets teens know, You Are Not Alone   Suicide is now the 2nd leading cause of death for youth, age 15 to 24. Yet, we know that suicide is preventable. On December 2, 2015, students throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties joined together to help SPTS in an awareness spreading campaign to help let teens know that they are never alone. The holidays can be a stressful time, and being a teen doesn't make it any…
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