Childhood suicide: A call to action for play therapists

What is it about?

As rates of children attempting and dying by suicide accelerate in the United States, it is imperative that play therapists increase their competency to address childhood suicidality. This manuscript provides evidence-based data on this phenomenon and is a call to action inviting play therapists to cultivate awareness, knowledge, skills, and advocacy competencies to address childhood suicide and create positive change. The authors offer a cross-culturally adaptive screening and assessment tool for use by play therapists working with children with suicidal ideation. A case vignette demonstrates integrating the screening tool during play therapy, and the manuscript concludes with suicide prevention strategies for play therapists.

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Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Suicidality within childhood is a concern for play therapists supporting children presenting with a variety of concerns. In the midst of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, rates of mental health issues, particularly suicidality, increased significantly for some children. This phenomena received attention from helping practitioners and researchers across the world (e.g., Balachandran et al., 2020; Dervic & Oquendo, 2019; Hill et al., 2020; Loades et al., 2020; Manzar et al., 2020; Marques de Miranda et al., 2020; Philip, 2021), as multiple factors contributing to children’s mental health and experience of suicidality were exposed. For example, children who experienced socioeconomic deprivation prior to the pandemic were subjected to worsening economic conditions, complicated by parent and caregiver loss of employment (Haffejee et al., 2022). Trends in child mental health symptomatology during and after the pandemic paint a complicated picture, with mental health practitioners providing services on the front lines. Nevertheless, lasting effects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary adjustments needed to curb the spread of the virus (Hill et al., 2020; Loades et al., 2020; Manzar et al., 2020) may continue to contribute to children’s adverse mental health outcomes. With high rates of recent psychosocial concerns, knowledge and awareness of key factors contributing to children’s increasing rates of suicidal ideation and attempts is essential for effective clinical practice and advocacy for enhanced preventative measures. The authors offer a current review of the phenomenon and recommend a developmentally appropriate and cross-culturally adaptive screening and assessment tools for use with children. A proposal of play therapy as an intervention for use with children experiencing suicidal ideation is offered in addition to an illustration of its application through a case vignette. Finally, an outline of preventative measures and postvention strategies to help combat the issue of childhood suicide is demonstrated.

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