Amsterdam, Netherlands

Understanding and Preventing Youth Suicide and Suicidal Behavior

In several western countries, youths’ mental health has decreased, and their suicide rate has risen over the past decade. The loss of young people brings lifelong sorrow to their families and is a major concern for schools, peer groups, youth care, and public health.

Throughout this summer school, we will take a dive into this field of youth suicide prevention, to better understand this tragedy in relation to challenges in the period of adolescence and young adulthood, as well as adequate interventions for young people. We accomplish this through lectures and interactive workshops from experts on a broad arrangement of research disciplines.

Furthermore, several brainstorming sessions are planned through the week for students to form your own zero suicide plan. You will have a chance to present this plan to your peers at the end of the summer school. Among other things, the summer school will cover:
* introduction to suicidology,
* risk-factors of suicidality among young people,
* psychological autopsy,
* machine learning,
* psychological and sociological perspectives. The summer school invites students from the Social Sciences, Humanities, Medical Sciences, and Computer Science to participate. Ultimately, a young generation will be inspired to collaborate in exploring new fruitful directions of decreasing the burden of suicidality among youth.

Course leader

Dr. Diana van Bergen, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Target group

Master and PhD Students with an interest in youth’s mental health from the Social Sciences, Humanities, Medical Sciences, Sciences and Computer Science.
It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English.

Course aim

After this course:
1. The participant will have an understanding of the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood and their relationship with suicidality.
2. The participant will have knowledge of the risk factors for youth suicide and adequate interventions.
3. The participant will have gained understanding of different methodologies and their approaches to understanding and preventing suicide.
4. The participant will have gained understanding of different research disciplines and their contributions to the field.
5. Based on teamwork, the participants will have developed and presented their ideas for youth suicide prevention.

Fee info

EUR 500: Last moment for submitting your application:

1 April for students from low and middle income countries (due to visa applications)
1 May for applicants from high income countries.