Free Press readers have lots of questions about COVID-19. We ve asked the experts and tracked down sources to help sort through the information swirling about the virus, the vaccines, and more.
Please continue to ask us questions and we ll continue to seek answers for our readers. Submit your questions to us by emailing Free Press health reporter Kristen Jordan Shamus at kshamus@freepress.com and we ll answer as many as we can.
Here s this week s Q&A:
QUESTION:
How long does protection from a COVID-19 vaccine last?
ANSWER: It s too soon to know. The vaccines are new, and it s unclear how long protection lasts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Suicidal thoughts
The screening tool, called the Computerized Adaptive Screen for Suicidal Youth, or CASSY, is designed to be used in emergency rooms through a brief and efficient system that doesn’t disrupt care. When an adolescent or teen is admitted for any reason whether it’s a psychiatric complaint or something unrelated like a sports injury they complete a questionnaire on a digital device.
The teen’s answers form the basis for follow-up questions and the number of questions so that the screening is tailored to the individual patient.
“Different combinations of risk factors can place youth at risk. If we screen only for suicidal thoughts, we will miss some high-risk adolescents.”
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The suicide rate among American adolescents has rose drastically over the last decade, but many at-risk youths aren t receiving the mental health services they need.
In fact, one of the greatest challenges is identifying the young people who need the most help.
Now, researchers have developed a personalized system to better detect suicidal youths. The novel, universal screening tool helps caregivers reliably predict an adolescent s suicide risk - alerting them to which ones need follow-up interventions - according to Michigan Medicine-led findings published in
JAMA Psychiatry. Too many young people are dying by suicide and many at high risk go completely unrecognized and untreated, says lead author Cheryl King, Ph.D., a professor, clinical child psychologist, and director of the Youth and Young Adult Depression and Suicide Prevention Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan Medicine.