Suicide is the second-leading cause of preventable death for British Columbia children between 12 and 18, a new study of youth suicide said Tuesday.

The B.C. Coroners Service report said 81 children killed themselves between 2003 and 2007, and 70 per cent of them had shown signs of suicidal behaviour and reached out to someone for help.

"Parents and family members told us that in hindsight they noticed changes in behaviour — kids withdrawing, changing their patterns, neglecting their personal hygiene," said Kellie Kilpatrick, director of the Coroners Service's child death review unit.

"And they put it down to normal adolescent angst, which it may very well be, but I think these children and youth deaths have shown us we have to pay attention, we have to listen."

The groups most at risk are teenage boys, gay teens and aboriginal youth, the report said.

The report, prepared by a special panel including parents, mental health experts and researchers, makes 17 recommendations.

The provincial government needs to establish a suicide-prevention program and to better understand the signs of children at risk of suicide, the report said.

"We want to get the message out to kids and families to start talking about child safety and well-being, and encourage families to talk," Kilpatrick said.

Prevention education a key

The report, entitled Looking for Something to Look Forward To, said suicide prevention is an issue that must spread far beyond families, Kilpatrick said.

B.C.'s Children's Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond called the report valuable and thorough.

She is currently reviewing nine youth suicides and 45 attempted suicides in British Columbia since last June.

"We have a cluster," she said. "That's a sufficient group that we've started an aggregate suicide review, looking at primarily mental health supports to adolescents," Turpel-Lafond said.

The Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of B.C. said the province had one of the highest youth suicide rates in the country a decade ago, but it now has one of the lowest.

"We are doing education with kids. We are doing education with school counsellors and teachers," said Susan Sorrel, the centre's director of community education.

"There are more mental health services that are starting to realize most kids who are suicidal have some kind of intense mental issue, primarily a mood disorder," she said.

With files from the Canadian Press