WHAT:
The reigning Miss New York State, Jessica Lynch will share her lifelong battle with depression at a doctors forum at Montefiore Medical Center. Now age 24, Miss Lynch has been fighting anorexia and depression since age 10. She will address the doctors as part of her platform for the Miss America Program to help prevent childhood depression and suicide discrimination and promote mental health for children, adolescents and teens throughout our state.

WHEN:
Thursday, June 10 at 10:30 AM

WHERE:
Montefiore Medical Center
East Gun Hill Road Entrance (between Bainbridge and DeKalb Avenues)

WHO:
Jessica Lynch, Miss New York State 2003

Dr. Alec L. Miller, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director of the Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program, Montefiore Medical Center.

Dr. Alec L. Miller, is a nationally recognized expert in Teenage Suicide and employment of Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a specialized and highly effective treatment modality offered by Montefiore Medical Center’s Child/Adolescent Outpatient Program.

FACTS:

• One out of five HS students has seriously considered suicide in the past year. 15% of them have made a plan.
• Almost 9% have attempted suicide (approximately 1 million HS students) with about 700,000 receiving medical attention.
• Greater than 2000 adolescents die by suicide each year. It is the 3rd leading cause of deaths in this age group, preceded only by accidents and homicides. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students.

Montefiore Medical Center was the first to adapt Dialectical Behavior Therapy, an evidence-based treatment for suicidal adults, to a suicidal multi-problem adolescent outpatient population. Pilot data suggest that this is a very promising treatment to reduce suicidal behaviors and to keep these adolescents in outpatient therapy. In other settings, many suicidal adolescents drop out of treatment after only 5 visits.