"Anonymous" posted a comment on the TeenScreen item and so I am posting a link here to the December 2004 issue of the American Family Physician article which delineates the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on screening for suicide risk.
Per the Centers for Disease Control, "For Americans ages 15 to 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death." Click here for the CDC's Injury Fact Book.
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Thank you for that: "The USPSTF found no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality."
It's utterly amazing how proponents of screening go around saying child suicides are the 3rd or 4th leading cause of death without ever telling you how extremely rare it is! Any person can easily search for the actual statistics here on the CDC website: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html
In addition there is more to the USPTF. Ned Calonge, the chairman of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, who is also the chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, was quoted in the June 16, 2006 Washington Post: "the panel would reach the same conclusion today... Whether or not we like to admit it, there are no interventions that have no harms... There is weak evidence that screening can distinguish people who will commit suicide from those who will not... And screening inevitably leads to treating some people who do not need it. Such interventions have consequences beyond side effects from drugs or other treatments... Unnecessary care drives up the cost of insurance, causing some people to lose coverage altogether.
That reference is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501984.html
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