PSYCHOLOGIST WILL DISCUSS TEEN SUICIDE

The co-director of the Harvard Medical School Study on Suicide will present a free lecture and video presentation on teenage suicide Monday night.

Pamela C. Cantor of the Center for the Study of Suicide at Harvard will give the presentation, "Young People in Crisis: Facing the Facts of Teen Suicide," from 6:30 to 8:30 at St. Vincent De Paul School, 1919 Ritter Drive.

Cantor is being brought to Cape Girardeau by the Mental Health Association of Cape Girardeau County, the Southeast Missouri State University Social Work Club, the Community Counseling Center and the Community Caring Council. On Tuesday she will conduct a workshop for professionals on the subject of teenage suicide, prevention and intervention.

Paul J. Schniedermeyer, director of children and family services for the Community Counseling Center, said young people and their families are urged to attend Monday night's presentation.

Schniedermeyer said: "Because our community and neighboring communities have experienced the loss and effects of teenagers attempting or actually completing suicide, a group of us developed this presentation. We wanted to increase awareness to the public, including parents, young people themselves, and anyone whose life is touched by that of an adolescent. We also saw a need for greater professional awareness."

Cantor, who holds a doctorate degree, is a lecturer in psychology in Harvard's Department of Psychiatry. She is president of the National Committee on Youth Suicide Prevention, past-president of the American Association of Suicidology, and served on the Presidential Task Force on Youth Suicide Prevention.

She has lectured on the subject throughout the world and is a syndicated columnist on mental health issues involving adolescents and parenting. She wrote and narrated an award-winning documentary, "Young People In Crisis: How You Can Help."

To register for the all-day professional workshop, to be held at the University Center on the Southeast campus, contact the Mental Health Association at 334-1100. The fee is $25 and $10 for students. No registration is necessary and no fee will be charged for the afternoon conference, which runs from 1:30 to 4.