2018 Kazakhstan: The Evaluation of Adolescents Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Pilot

Out of the numerous health concerns that children across the world face, especially in developing countries, among the most prevalent issues is mental health. In Kazakhstan in particular, a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic, poor mental health has had a direct correlation with one of the world's highest suicide rates among young adults and adolescents. As a result of this ongoing problem, UNICEF in Kazakhstan has taken steps to resolve this issue as much possible by developing and piloting a suicide prevention and mental health pilot program. Within this program are lessons for children and parents to overcome stigmas related to mental health, having open and effective communication between parents and children, and improving access to pharmacological treatment, as mental illnesses are as serious of a medical problem as physical illnesses. This Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project, which ran from 2015 to 2017, was developed only after UNICEF Kazakhstan commissioned a study on risk factors, prevalence, and protective factors of suicide in the country of Kazakhstan. This evaluation analyzes the efficacy of this project in terms of its cost-efficiency and its compatibility of its methodology for utilization in other countries around the globe.