Strengthening Suicide Prevention in Rural Schools

Region 17 Comprehensive Center facilitates NWRISE, a network of small rural schools in Idaho, Washington, and Montana. In June 2023, NWRISE held its spring member convening. Participant schools identified youth mental health as a topic they wished to address. To support members, the NWRISE steering committee selected Dr. Kurt Michael, Senior Clinical Director at The Jed Foundation with expertise in rural school mental health and adolescent suicidology, as the guest speaker to lead a conversation on this difficult topic. This blog post is by Dr. Michael and provides a summary of his presentation on youth suicide and key prevention strategies.