UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) invites you to its 2025 Barbara Hanna Wasik Distinguished Lecture on March 19, 2025, from 9:00-10:30 a.m. This lecture will feature UNC School of Education’s Marisa Marraccini, PhD, NCSP, presenting “Centering Youth in Youth Suicide Prevention: Innovative Approaches to Bridge School and Clinical Care.” 

Despite evidence-based interventions for preventing and addressing suicide-related thoughts and behaviors, youth suicide and suicide-related crises remain a pressing public health concern. Approximately 20% of adolescents report seriously considering a suicide attempt and 9% report having attempted suicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). Additionally, the number of pediatric hospitalizations for suicide-related thoughts and behaviors increased by 31% over the past 10 years (Arakeylan et al., 2023). There are numerous obstacles to identifying, managing, and treating youth with suicide-related risk. Some of these include organizational barriers (e.g., lengthy wait times, limited access), negative perspectives of clinical care, and services delivered across a variety of disconnected contexts (e.g., school and clinical settings). Although understanding and prioritizing youth perspectives is a critical next step for addressing these barriers, limited research informing suicide prevention programs and practices has involved partnerships with youth with lived suicidal experiences. In this talk, Marisa Marraccini, PhD, NCSP, describes her work in developing and testing supports and interventions for youth returning to school following a suicide-related crisis, including a description of how her research moved from considering youth perspectives to partnering with youth with lived experiences.  

Marraccini is a Donald & Justeen Tarbet Distinguished Scholar and associate professor of School Psychology in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in promoting student mental health and preventing youth suicide. With funding from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health, and MQ Mental Health Foundation, Marraccini has been leading research focused on developing and testing novel approaches to youth suicide prevention, prioritizing perspectives of individuals with lived experience throughout each phase of research. 

A panel discussion will follow Marraccini’s presentation with UNC faculty working in similar research areas. 

This hybrid event will take place at the C.D. Spangler Building and will also be available via Zoom. 

References 

Arakelyan, M., Freyleue, S., Avula, D., McLaren, J. L., O’Malley, A. J., & Leyenaar, J. K. (2023). Pediatric mental health hospitalizations at acute care hospitals in the US, 2009-2019. JAMA, 329(12), 1000–1011. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2013–2023.