Educational Media Reviews Online

Suicide prevention is the major theme of this video “designed to raise young people’s awareness of suicide as a serious health problem.” It is intended to provide “reasons for hope and reasons to live.” Viewers meet Jordan, Maggie, David, and Max who are willing to talk about their feelings as they either thought about or attempted suicide. Each student talks as if he is responding to an interviewer that is not seen. These views are interspersed with scenes showing the students in their environment with family and in other activities. This combined with appropriate music that mirrors the feelings of the students and some graphic views to highlight comments that are discussed provides an effective presentation style. Collectively we listen to comments on depression, feelings of hopelessness and sadness, anger, confusion about sexuality, misperceptions, anger, pressure to perform at a high levels, and withdrawal from normal activities and friends. As the young people describe the journey to wellness and better mental health, we observe that educators, parents, and friends play a major role in the recovery process along with counselors and psychologists.

The teacher’s resource book, available in pdf format on the DVD, provides activities for youth to help explore and expand the concepts in the film. Also available on the DVD is a second brief informative video for parents and educators featuring suicide prevention specialist, Daniel J. Reidenberg, Psy.D. Dr. Reidenberg discusses causes of suicide and warning signs, provides information on what to do if it appears that suicide may be attempted, and illustrates ways to help adults talk about suicide with teenagers. A dramatic statistic in the parent film indicates that “suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people.” With this statistic and the important message that suicide can be prevented, the film is highly recommended for libraries with junior high and high school libraries, public libraries and for psychology collections with special emphasis on young adults.