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This Child Fatality information provided by the Injury & Violence Prevention section of the Office of Disease Prevention & Epidemiology.
1998 Child Fatality Review Annual Report  (pdf) (221 K) Special Topics 2. Suicide In 1998 there were 16 suicides among youth under age 18 in Oregon. The rate of suicide among youth aged 15-17 was almost twice that among those aged 10-14 (8 suicides among those aged 10-14, for a rate of 3.4, compared to 8 among those aged 15-17, for a rate of 5.4). Males were 3 times more likely to die by suicide than females (12 suicides among males compared to four suicides among females). One suicide occurred while the victim was under the influence of alcohol. There were seven (44%) firearm suicides. Four of the guns used were handguns and three were long guns. Five (71%) of the seven firearms were not stored in a locked location; the storage location for the other two guns was unknown. In two cases in which the firearm was stored unlocked, the ammunition was stored separately from the firearm. The firearms belonged either to the victims? parents or, in one case, to a friend?s grandfather. The remaining suicides (9/66%) were due to hanging. Suicide methods varied according to gender. Males were 6 times more likely than females to die from firearm suicide (six firearm suicides among males compared to one firearm suicide among females). Of the nine suicides by hanging, six (64%) were male. Seven (78%) were white and the remaining two were American Indian. Six (64%) of the children came from families with a history of receiving services from SCF. Two children were in custody at a single Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) facility when their deaths occurred, and one additional child had recently been released from the same facility and was in OYA foster care when her death occurred. Two suicides had occurred in the previous year at this same institution. The temporal and geographic clustering of these three deaths suggests that they were related to one another. Data were available on whether or not the following risk factors for suicide were present in each
case: history of a prior suicide attempt, history of mental health problems in the past, current
mental health treatment, gender or sexual orientation issues, alcohol or substance abuse history,
and problems with school attendance and/or grades. Thirteen (81%) of these children had at least
one of these recognized risk factors, and nine (56%) had two or more of these risk factors. The
presence of these risk factors may help identify high risk youth who should be the focus of
prevention efforts.
The state CFR team members determined that a more thorough investigation of suicide deaths was warranted. Some investigative reports on suicides were as brief as two or three sentences. Often investigations included only family members as sources of information, while additional important information could possibly have been gathered from sources such as school and the child?s peers. Additional information on youth suicide in Oregon is available from the Youth Suicide Prevention Program at the Oregon Health Services. Recommendations to Prevent Suicide Fatalities
Examples of current safety initiatives include the following:
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