Suicide is one of the major cause of mortality in adolescents and young adults, and a major public health priority. The McGill Group for Suicide Studies (MGSS) has been conducting studies aiming to identify the unmet needs in mental health services and treatment. These types of studies typically ask questions such as the following: Did suicides seek help prior to their death? If so, did they have access to adequate mental health services? Did the services match their needs? How often did they use them? Were they offered/prescribed appropriate treatment?

Results from this type of study can have an important impact on professional help delivery to individuals going through a suicide crisis.

Examples of studies conducted by our group investigating service utilization are:

• Systematic services audit of consecutive suicides in New Brunswick: the case for coordinating specialist mental health and addiction services. Lesage A, Séguin M, Guy A, Daigle F, Bayle MN, Chawky N, Tremblay N, Turecki G. Can J Psychiatry. 2008 Oct;53(10):671-8.
   
• Life trajectories and burden of adversity: mapping the developmental profiles of suicide mortality. Séguin M, Lesage A, Turecki G, Bouchard M, Chawky N, Tremblay N, Daigle F, Guy A. Psychol Med. 2007 Nov;37(11):1575-83.
   
• Psychiatric services utilization in completed suicides of a youth centres population. Renaud J, Chagnon F, Balan B, Turecki G, McGirr A, Marquette C. BMC Psychiatry. 2006 Aug 23;6:36.
   
• Youth and young adult suicide: A study of life trajectory.
  Séguin M, Renaud J, Lesage A, Robert M, Turecki G. J Psychiatr Res. 2011 Jul;45(7):863-70.