CDC Officials To Arrive, Study Palo Alto Suicide Clusters

PALO ALTO - In an unusual response for the federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching an epidemiological study on teen suicide in the Palo Alto area.

According to the Washington Post, a team of suicide prevention specialists arrived Tuesday in Santa Clara County for a two-week site visit.

Santa Clara County officials have called the area’s suicide clusters an urgent public health problem.

With the adolescent suicide rate in Palo Alto at five times the national average, the Post says between 2010 and 2014, an average of 20 children and young adults killed themselves annually in Santa Clara County, where Palo Alto is located.

While the CDC generally acts on infectious-disease outbreaks, the San Jose Mercury News reported, this investigation signals a rare instance of the agency dispatching a unit for a chronic health issue.

The Post says the CDC conducted similar research in Fairfax, Va., and found “multiple risk factors,” including “high expectations for students, parental pressure on students for success and parental denial of mental health issues among their children.”