A new digital screening tool for use in emergency rooms could better detect and prevent youth suicides, Michigan Medicine said Wednesday.
The tool named CASSY, short for Computerized Adaptive Screen for Suicidal Youth is one of the latest efforts to address youth suicide, which is an increasing concern during the pandemic. Too many young people are dying by suicide and many at high risk go completely unrecognized and untreated, the study s lead author, Cheryl King, said. About half of the youth who die by suicide have never received any mental health services.
King, a clinical child psychologist and director of the Youth and Young Adult Depression and Suicide Prevention Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan Medicine, said there is an urgent need to improve youth suicide screening.