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By Ashley Legassic

CHILD AND YOUTH SUICIDES

Interior Health has highest number, highest rate of youth suicide deaths in B.C.

Aug 15, 2019 | 10:05 AM

VICTORIA — From 2013 to 2018, the Interior Health Authority had nearly two times the rate of child and youth suicides as compared to the rest of B.C.

That’s according to a new report released by the BC Coroners Service.

Interior Health also had the highest number of child and youth suicide deaths in that time period. 23 per cent of suicide deaths were among Indigenous children and youth.

Suicide is the leading cause of injury-related death among children and youth in the province, with roughly 20 kids per year dying by suicide.

Of the 111 youth suicide deaths that a review panel focused on between 2013 and 2018, three times more males died by suicide than females.

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“In this review, of the 39 children and youth with medications prescribed for psychiatric conditions, one in five were prescribed psychiatric medications that did not follow prescribing guidelines and 41 (per cent) were prescribed medications that were considered ‘off-label’ use,” the report states.

Off-label is when a doctor prescribes a medication even though it isn’t approved for the specific disorder being treated, or for use by people under a certain age. More than 85 per cent of the deaths studied involved older teens between 15 to 18.

“In this review, almost all children and youth who died by suicide were reported to have experienced personal stressors with ‘relationship difficulties’ being reported as the most common type of personal challenge in more than two-thirds of the deaths studied,” the report states.

If you are in crisis, call the Canada Suicide Prevention Service at 1 (833) 456-4566, connect to the Crisis Text Line by texting 686868, or if you’re 20 or younger, call Kids Help Phone at 1 (800) 668-6868.