MEMORANDUM

To: Ms. Kangas and Ms. Evans

From: Stephanie Contreras
Date: 10/7/2015
Subject: A proposal to implement a support group to show that suicide is not an option at
Academy Highschool.

PURPOSE
The current norm in our society is that suicide has increased and more teenagers are thinking that
suicide is the only option. This memorandum serves to propose that Academy High School start
a support group to help prevent suicide. This group will let teenagers express themselves and be
able to be with people who have, or are going through the same situation. The group will provide
a safe environment and help teens with suicidal thoughts. The goal is to show teenagers in our
school that suicide is not the answer, and be able to help them in their time of need.

PROBLEM
Suicide exists everywhere on our globe, but I would like to narrow it and start with this problem
at our school. Suicide is when one commits self- murder because of an issue they are having or a
situation they are in; it would really just depend on the person. For example the case of Brittany
Maynard, who was a cancer patient, decided to take the road of death with dignity (My Right to
Death with Dignity 29.)
Suicide is a problem because it has become the tenth leading cause of death with 1000,000
suicides in 2012. Also the suicide rate increased by 2% to 12.6% (Suicide Prevention Investment
Needed to Reverse Trend of Increasing Suicide 2015.) This is problematic because that is
sending a message to our society saying that giving up is ok and it's not.
Suicide does not solve anything, it just makes people sadder and worse, turns our society into a
sad one. For example research shows that when a family member commits suicide the
probability of the other family members committing suicide rises (Key Research Findings.)

Thats why its a problem, it affects us and society as a whole. Ideally if this problem didnt exist
there wouldnt be so many deaths and our society as a whole would become a happier and better
place. The article "Young Men who Commit Suicide" talks about how men are four times more
likely to commit suicide because of the fact that they didnt know what to do in college with their
education, in other words confused about who they are and what to do with their life, leading
them to suicide. Suicide is a problem because students are not getting guidance or the support
needed to keep going and figuring things out.
Implementing a support group at Academy High School is vital. This will benefit our students
who are struggling, and really the whole community around those students. The support group
will avoid loosing precious lives and the mourning. Implementing this group would provide
support for the students, and an environment where they can get help and keep moving forward.

SOLUTION
By implementing a support group at Academy High School we will be preventing suicides and
helping students. This support group will have three tasks:

Create a mission statement: In this we will be able to get the over all idea of what the

group is for. We will also create an agenda, set norms and create goals.
Create a curriculum for coping skills: In this we will be able to come up with ideas to be
able to deal with each situation a person is in. We will have worksheets to brainstorm and
have group discussions to bring all ideas together. This would be a form of helping each

other out.
Bringing awareness to students at our highschool with posters: In this we will create
posters mentioning the date and times the group will meet and place so that more and
more students who need support can join. With the posters we can create a warm
welcoming to people and let them know support is out there.

Implementing this support group will provide a safe environment where students can vent and
open up, as well as getting help with their problems they are having. On a greater scale, this
group would affect families and communities because if the student gets the help from the group,

they won't commit suicide and they will be getting the support they need. The group will help
students and save families from going through a loss, making a better community.

CONCLUSION
The goal is to help students avoid suicide by implementing a support group at Academy High
School. As an outcome of this recommendation students will get the support they need and no
longer be confused, they will learn how to handle the situation they are in and learn that suicide
is not an option. This recommendation will allow students to be able to vent and feel safe in this
environment and over all creating a better community. Some benefits of this group would be that
by preventing a suicide, the chances of close friends committing suicide won't go up. Also
students will be better off academically and the message of "giving up is ok" will change when
the suicide rates go down.

Works Cited
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.
"Key Research Findings." American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2015
Maynard, Brittany. "My Right to Death with Dignity at 29." CNN. Cable News Network, 02 Nov. 2014.
Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

"Suicide Prevention Investment Needed to Reverse Trend of Increasing Suicide."

"Young Men Who Commit Suicide." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.