SUICIDE IN ANY form is a serious problem, but the issue of suicide among young adults is especially serious. Many experts feel that teen suicide has reached epidemic proportions.

In the last thirty years, the rate of reported suicides among teens in America has tripled. It now stands at about 16 per 100,000 for boys and 4.2 per 100,000 for girls. Suicide is the third leading cause of death (after accidents and homicides) among fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds. From these figures, it appears that every year about five thousand young Americans kill themselves. The real number may be much higher, since families sometimes try to conceal a suicide, and many deaths that are officially classified as accidental may in fact be suicides.

A still larger number of young people—estimates range from half a million to 2 million yearly—try to kill themselves but do not succeed. Accurate...