Host: Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, College of Public Health, NTU

Co-host: Population Health Research Center, NTU

Written by: Zhan-Hong Liu, Research Assistant, Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences

Professor Holly Wilcox is a faculty member in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a world leading suicide researcher. Her research has long focused on youth suicide prevention, with a strong emphasis on evaluating public health interventions using large-scale empirical data.

On January 15, 2026, at the introduction of Professor Chuan-Yu Chen from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Professor Shu-Sen Chang, Director of the Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, invited Professor Wilcox to deliver a lecture at the College of Public Health, National Taiwan University.

In her lecture, Professor Wilcox emphasized that youth mental health and suicide prevention represent major public health challenges. Since 2014, suicide mortality rates among individuals aged 10–24 years in Taiwan have shown a marked upward trend, with suicide now ranking as the second leading cause of death in this age group. She advocated for a population-based approach, arguing that shifting the overall risk distribution through changes to social and environmental conditions is more effective than focusing solely on a small number of individuals at high risk. This approach is particularly relevant in the context of the increasing prevalence of mental disorders and rising levels of suicidal ideation and behavior.

Professor Wilcox presented several evidence-based interventions for suicide prevention and mental health promotion. These included the Good Behavior Game, implemented at the elementary school level, which has been shown to reduce aggressive and impulsive behaviors and to confer long-term protection against suicide risk with favorable cost-effectiveness. She also discussed youth mental health literacy programs such as Youth Aware of Mental Health; AI-based early warning systems such as GoGuardian Beacon for identifying risk behaviors and enabling timely intervention; policies restricting access to lethal means, including firearm safe storage requirements in the United States; peer support initiatives such as Teen Mental Health First Aid; and suicide prevention legislation implemented across U.S. states to reduce suicide rates. In addition, she introduced the Maryland Suicide Data Warehouse, which integrates population-level suicide data across sectors and applies psychological autopsy methods to improve understanding of suicide.

Professor Wilcox concluded by stressing that effective suicide prevention requires coordinated action across government sectors, with close collaboration to translate scientific evidence into systematic policy change to protect the lives and well-being of younger generations.