Sign Of Suicide Program

SOS: Depression Screening and Suicide Prevention

SOS Web Page

Each year 9th grade students at John Glenn High School learn how to ACT by participating in the Signs of Suicide Student Prevention Program.

This program is made possible through a generous grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.  Additional partnerships with Hegira Programs, Inc. and The University of Detroit Mercy provide tremendous support for the success of this program.

Acknowledge that your friend has a problem.

Care: Let your friends know that you are there for them and CARE what happens.

Tell a trusted adult about your concerns.

Link to the JGHS Parent Permission Letter

(for student participation)

What is the SOS program?
The SOS Signs of Suicide ® Program is a nationally recognized, easily implemented, cost-effective program of suicide prevention for secondary school students. It is the only school-based program to:

• Show a reduction in suicide attempts (by 40%) in a randomized controlled study (American Journal of Public Health, March, 2004).   Read the full final report of these findings .
• Be selected by SAMHSA for its National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) .

The SOS Program has also documented a dramatic increase in help-seeking (Adolescent and Family Health, 2003). The main teaching tool of the SOS program is a video that teaches students how to identify symptoms of depression and suicidality in themselves or their friends and encourages help-seeking. The program's primary objectives are to educate teens that depression is a treatable illness and to equip them to respond to a potential suicide in a friend or family member using the SOS technique. SOS is an action-oriented approach instructing students how to ACT ( A cknowledge, C are and T ell) in the face of this mental health emergency.

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