Spotlight on Suicide Prevention

Mental Health America of Licking County is continually examining new methods to promote our goals of education, advocacy, intervention and prevention.  In the spirit of furthering the mission of MHALC,  we will be spotlighting the programs and support groups associated with this agency.  It is through these programs that we strive to integrate physical health with mental health by proclaiming, “There is no health without mental health”.  This month’s spotlight is on Suicide Prevention. 

The Suicide Prevention Progam at MHALC is a program that focuses on nurturing the mental health of the youth in Licking County through activities like Share the Love, which is featured on the agency's website, http://mhalc.org.  This will be an evening of encouragement and outreach.  Students are invited to bring their electronic devices in order to reach out to friends and family to let them know they are loved.  Through this activity, we hope to provide inspiration to others and to also teach students the value of caring for their community.  Share the Love is an excellent approach to creating awareness in a positive and compassionate manner. 

But, Share the Love is only one of the many  functions of the Suicide Prevention Program.  Justina Wade, Program Coordinator for Suicide Prevention, travels to schools in Licking County daily. Justina is happy to say that, as of this year, Suicide Prevention has reached 90% of the schools in Licking County.  Throughout the month of January, Justina organized depression screenings in Licking County high schools. The goal of these screenings is to empower students to seek the help they need and to reduce the number of suicide deaths.   15% of the students screened indicated they would like to talk to someone about mental health issues and all were referred to guidance counselors.  35% of the students were red-flagged for depression during these screenings and were immediately evaluated by a mental health professional.  Within this group, many admitted to contemplating or even attempting suicide.  Many times, these screenings offer students an opportunity to talk about issues they find difficult to talk about at home.       

In addition to many school activities, Suicide Prevention at MHALC is also part of the Licking County Suicide Prevention Coalition.  This Coalition was established in 2002 with the mission to reduce the number of deaths by suicide in Licking County and to increase willingness to seek help. The Coalition is made up of private citizens, staff of various social services and mental health organizations, a deputy coroner, and school staff.  This coalition meets once each month to discuss the suicide statistics in Licking County.  A large portion of this meeting is spent discussing better ways to educate and create awareness in this community.

Another educational component of Suicide Prevention that Justina coordinates is the Gatekeeper Training Program.  This training program is provided to businesses, individuals or agencies that deal with people on a regular basis.  Based on research, this training helps individuals understand the signs of suicide and the proper way to proceed in getting help to the person in crisis.  MHALC also partners with Mental Health & Recovery for Licking and Knox Counties to offer Mental Health First Aid. This is another specialized training course designed to develop skills for an individual experiencing a mental health crisis. Please visit the MHALC website for more information on these training programs.     

According to MHALC’s statistics, Licking County has an average of 14.5 suicides per 100,000 people, which is higher that the national average of 13 per 100,000.  The time has come for this community to become more aware and concerned about those who are struggling with mental illnesses. Individuals who are suffering must be encouraged to seek treatment.  As a community, we need to take steps to eradicate the stigma attached to mental illness.  In the words of  Penny Sitler, the Executive Director of MHALC, “Stigma often causes people to hide their illness or the fact that a family member is dealing with mental health issues because they’re embarrassed or afraid of how they will be treated.”  We must be equally concerned with the mental health of our children, as the screenings performed in the schools have shown us, they are struggling as well.  It is time to understand the need to integrate physical health and mental health, because we simply cannot continue to nurture one and neglect the other.  Programs like Suicide Prevention are critical for our community, but we need to be willing to do our part.  Mental Health America of Licking County urges local individuals, organizations, and businesses to participate in the training offered by this agency.

For more information, or for information on how to get plugged into this program, visit the MHALC website at  http://mhalc.org.  Justina and all of the staff members at MHALC are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 until 5:00 to answer any questions regarding these important issues at (740) 522-1341.    

Jill Goddard

Development/Program Manager

Mental Health America of Licking County

jgoddard@mhalc.org

(740) 788-0301

Justina Wade

Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Mental Health America of Licking County

suicideprevention@mhalc.org

(740) 788-0353

Down in the Hole

Like many, if not most, of the people who work in non-profits, I wear many hats, not the least of which is managing our social media outreach through this blog, Facebook, Twitter and now Pinterest.

All of the so-called social media experts tell you that content is king and if you are not constantly updating your pages, your site is dead and users--"eyeballs"--are lost. 

We are dependent on the kindness of strangers to support our work.  And in an increasingly competitive environment where dollars are few and getting fewer, being seen to be current, up-to-date on trends and information in your field is key to getting those strangers to affiliate with an organization and support it financially.  So, in between promoting news and events originating with our Agency, I supplement the content for these outlets with posts I find elsewhere on the Internet. 

To make this easier, I have set up Google Alerts to bring me content relating to our programs and so each day I get emails about poverty, mental health, mental illness and suicide.

Every day.

And, by far, the leader in content generation terms is suicide.  Especially teen suicide.  8-9-10 posts every day.

To be honest, some of these posts are multiple sources reporting on the same event, but it does create the impression that teens are an endangered species in this country.

And it also creates the impression that our most experienced teens, the adults, have somehow managed to completely blot out that experience and therefore have no connection nor understanding of what teens go through.

The parental "survivors" of completed suicides--those who have lost a child--are always portrayed in shock, always seen as searching for the big why that took their child.

At the meta level, the narratives all begin to read the same; as though they conform to a predictable movie-of-the-week scenario where only the names have been changed.

In addition to the stories about completed suicides and searching parents, I also read about prevention efforts: efforts intended to educate students, parents, teachers, community leaders, clergy about the signs and symptoms of suicide.  The notion here is that if we know what behavior patterns to look for we can intervene and connect those at risk with resources and treatment.

I can only imagine that this makes the survivor parents feel that much worse.  The implicit suggestion is that it was some sort of deficit of vigilance that claimed their child.

Another common prevention strategy is one of affirmation.  Reminding at-risk teens that they are valued and loved will keep them from seeking a permanent end to a temporary problem.  This makes sense in that it enables those participating in these outreach efforts feel as though they are being proactive:  kind of like making cinnamon toast and hot tea for a loved one with a viral infection.

It is not my intent to mock or ridicule or in any way diminish the experience of those who have lost a loved one, or who are involved in suicide prevention efforts.  The losses are devastating and the interventions are few and palliative at best.

Based on my reading, which I freely admit is by no means comprehensive, it seems that ribbons and wrist bands, walk-a-thons and poster campaigns remind us that there is a problem.  Lectures and resource lists are precautionary by definition:  intended to inoculate.  Viral videos, like luxury car commercials, are promises of a possible future:  like personal jet packs and flying cars.

Missing from the conversation, it seems to me is an acknowledgement of the present, the painful now, the nowhere-to-run tense that dominates the landscape and occupies every waking minute. 

To be a teenager is to experience the collision between the eternal optimism of childhood and pessimism of the adult world; to move from a box of 128 Crayolas, through the binary world of black and white, to the endless shades gray--way more than 50, thank you very much--of the adult world.

And, as if navigating that transition were not difficult enough, we must also factor in the shifting allegiances that define the social networks of our young people.  Not only is impulse control hormonally impaired, but you have to factor in a social landscape that shifts faster than do alliances in "The Godfather."

What's the difference between a teen that is depressed and contemplates suicide and one that is depressed and completes a suicide is a question best left to researchers.  I know that when I was in the thick of my journey through those years, I had my share of teen-angst, paint-it-black, "deep" thoughts. 

I remember the fear and the anxiety and the desperation. 

I remember the rage, the desire to escape, to hide, to make it stop.

I remember the lack of control, the helplessness....  The hopelessness.

A lasting reminder of this period is a record collection that is full of soundtracks from escapist movies and the work of singer-songwriters specializing in expressions of sadness and depression.

Late one night, I remember watching a snowy broadcast of the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.  He was interviewing James Taylor and Carly Simon--I think it was Tom Snyder.  (Might have been Dick Cavett)  Anyway, they were talking and would occasionally sing songs separately, or together. 

I had never been a big James Taylor fan.  (I was definitely a member of Team Carly.)  But on that broadcast, he sang "The Secret of Life" and I remember being struck by the disconnect between what he was saying, "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time," and my experience which was definitely not enjoyable.

At that point in my Teen Trek, time was my enemy:  it could not pass fast enough and take me from my tormentors and to my personal jet pack world of the future.  People actually enjoyed time, appreciated it?  This was inaccessible to me.

But I was, as we say "time-curious" and decided to experiment.

I don't deny it, I dabbled in James Taylor records and tried to make sense of his perspective.  Drawn in by his optimistic "Secret of Life" I was blinded to the darker themes of "Fire and Rain" and had to have their mental health images pointed out to me.

I won't bore you with the rest of my journey, but a definite turning point of my teen years, was discovering Steve Martin.  His excellent book, "Born Standing Up" describes the thoughtful philosophical basis for his comedy, but I was absolutely taken by the absurdist quality of it.  His stand-up comic persona seemed to be defined by this "enjoying the passage of time" idea.  The pure joy that he projected when suddenly overcome by "happy feet" was admittedly a foreign language to me, but I knew it was a country that I wanted to visit.



Like most things in this life, there is no one answer to any question and, where emotions are involved, no one-size-fits-all strategies.  To impact teens who are at risk, who are drowning in conflict and hormones and weighed down by the secrets that are the common currency of those years we, the survivors, need to revisit our own experience and communicate with compassion and with honesty.

I am reminded of this wonderful scene from "The West Wing": 



You know how everyone says "Don't be that guy"?  We have all been that guy and now, when it comes to reaching out to teens who are at risk, we can all have a chance to be that friend who knows the way out.

--Graham Campbell
Associate Director

Suicide and Social Media

http://www.editorsweblog.org/special.php?tag=social%20media

A key strategy in suicide prevention is to talk about suicide and to ask those you suspect of being suicidal whether they are thinking of harming themselves. 

Somewhat paradoxically, it is also true that suicides, especially among teenagers, appear to happen in clusters and so there is this notion that suicide is contagious.

A recent internet posting from New Zealand prompted this blog post on our Suicide Prevention page on Facebook.

Busy School Year Under Way

I have been in schools back to back trying to spread the message of suicide prevention. Talking about suicide prevention in schools is so important because it reduces the stigma of a topic that teachers sometimes do not cover. It provides students with the necessary tools for helping themselves, or a loved one, who may one day face suicidal thoughts or depression.

I hear too many times from people who have lost a loved one to suicide that they wished they knew the warning signs, for if they did their loved one might still be here today. Hearing from survivors after suicides confirms how important my job is.

The sad reality is that this position may not exist after 2009. Due to The Ohio Department of Health no longer funding intentional injury grants, the program is facing elimination unless we fund funding elsewhere, which doesn’t look like it is going to happen. I have been writing grants left and right, however, I have had no luck.

I encourage you to spread the message of how important our program is, and if you know someone who may be able to donate to, or fund, the suicide prevention program to give MHA a call. This program really does save lives.

--Ashley Shaw
Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Suicide Prevention Week a Success!

Phew, I can finally breathe!

Last week was National Suicide Prevention week, and as suicide prevention coordinator I was very busy.

The annual candle light vigil was last week, and the turn out was great. There were over forty people there, along with media coverage from The Advocate and WCLT.

The suicide prevention quilt was debuted to the public, as well as a call for more photos to add to the quilt. Anyone who would like to include their loved one on the quilt can contact me for more information.

Besides suicide prevention week, I have been busy researching and writing grants for the program because the grant that currently funds the program ends on December 31 with no option to renew it. It has been very stressful trying to fund funding because the suicide prevention program is needed in Licking County. I have also been presenting in area middle and high schools on the warning signs of suicide and depression.

I want to end with a thank you to all of you who made the vigil such a success. I look forward to seeing you all soon!

--Ashley Shaw
Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Desperate Measures

“Suicide by cop” is a phrase that popped up in the news recently and is one that conjures up disturbing images.

It is a term used to describe a scenario in which a would-be suicide intentionally behaves in a threatening manner so as to provoke responding law enforcement personnel to use deadly force.

Police officers are trained to respond in a measured way to each situation they encounter. That response escalates as the threat escalates with deadly force being the final option.

A would-be suicide who has recognized that they are unable to take their own life will force a confrontation with the police and then escalate the situation until either the officer or bystander is threatened and deadly force is the only response remaining.

Suicide is the 11^th leading cause of death, claiming more than 30,000 Americans each year.

The average number of suicides in Licking County is 15 per 100,000 people per year. In just 8 months, there have been 18 suicides, 3 more than the 12 month average. A recent event, the car chase, has motivated me to write an article about suicide, and what can be done about it.

It is important that people know what can lead to suicide, why people see suicide as their only option, and what resources are available to those who may be having suicidal thoughts. Suicide is often a preventable situation, if people learn the warning signs to recognize.

The most common warning signs are:

• Withdrawing from friends, family, and/or society.
• Changes in sleep patterns; sleeping too much or too little.
• Acting recklessly or engaging in high risk behaviors (driving dangerously, doing “stunts”, disregarding own personal safety).
• An increase in drug and/or alcohol use.
• Talking and/or writing about death or suicide.
• Seeking access to firearms, medications, or other suicide means
• Saying things like “I can’t go on anymore” or “Everyone would be better off without me” or “I wish I was dead”
• Experiencing feelings of hopelessness, emptiness, or purposelessness.
• Anxiousness, irritability, or moodiness.
• Reading or writing about death or suicide.
• Suddenly happier or calmer.
• Giving away possessions or saying good-byes.
• Making arrangements or setting affairs in order.

People having suicidal thoughts do not want to die; they want an end to the pain and suffering that they are experiencing. They do not realize that suicide is a permanent end to a temporary problem. If they get the help they need while they are having these thoughts they realize they really don’t want to die.

The number one reason that people complete suicide is that they have an untreated mental illness such as depression. Other common reasons include: the death of a loved one, a breakup of a relationship, losing custody of children, or feeling that a child custody decision is not fair, serious loss, terminal illness, accident, physical or emotional pain, physical, verbal, or sexual abuse, legal problems, alcohol or drug abuse .

It is important that people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts understand that there are alternative responses other than suicide.

Some things people can do instead are: take a deep breath and try to identify feelings, write down all of the feelings as a record for later, try and do things that help them feel better for at least 30 minutes, write down individual negative thoughts and provide an alternative response that changes the perspective, and most importantly talk to someone.

Talking to someone helps communicate what you are feeling to someone that can help them. There are several resources that people can call, as well as visit on the internet. Locally, the local crisis line 211 or 345-HELP is the best resource to call if someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts. There are several national hotlines including 1-800-999-9999.

--Ashley Shaw

Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Spring Is On Its Way!

(Although a little bird told me it’s supposed to snow next week)

One of the first facts that surprised me when I became the Suicide Prevention Coordinator was that the rate of suicide is highest during the months of spring—not winter like I had assumed. So although I am excited for spring because I enjoy the nice weather and the chance to work in my garden, I also think we must be vigilant of the attitudes and behaviors of those around us during the coming months, and keep an eye out for the signs of depression and/or suicide.

We have started up a Survivors After Suicide support group for people who have survived the loss of a loved one due to suicide. Attendance has fluctuated since the first meeting in January. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of every month at 7:00 pm at Mental Health America of Licking County in the conference room. We welcome friends of survivors to meetings as well. During the meeting, anything that is shared is strictly confidential, and people who attend are welcome to share their stories or experiences, or not say anything at all and just listen. If childcare is a concern, please contact me, Brittany Schumann, at 740-522-1341 and we will see if we can arrange something for you.

Also, we are still collecting photographs with dates, etc. for the Suicide Prevention Quilt until June 1, 2009. You can send the photograph to us by mail and it will be returned to you within two weeks (Attn: Brittany Schumann, 65 Messimer Drive, Newark, OH 43055), or you can send photographs by email to bschumann@mhalc.org. Please feel free to include dates and/or brief quotes/memories with your photograph and we will include them on the quilt! Our hope is that this quilt will provide hope for people with thoughts of suicide that their life is worth living because people do care about them, and the lives of those who have died by suicide will be commemorated.

If you have any questions about depression, suicide, the support group or the quilt, please feel free to contact me!

--Brittany Schumann
Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Tradition

One of the aspects of the holidays that I love best is all of the traditions that emerge or evolve. I had fun freezing the tip of my nose off as my fiancé and I hung lights on our house. I had fun tromping through the snow to cut down a tree to put in our house this past weekend. I had fun hanging ornaments on said tree, even though the pine needles turned my fingers into splotchy red pincushions. I also had fun creating a new tradition. For the first time ever, I made Wassail.

One of my fiancé’s favorite traditions is holiday shopping. The stores and malls come alive over the holiday season, suddenly turning normally cheerful people into cranky shoppers barreling through the aisles with their carts demanding to know why the toy they were after is not in stock. Although buying presents for others is a wonderful tradition during the holidays, we must remember that it is the spirit of giving to others and not the actual gift that is important. With the economy heading south for the winter (and who knows when it will be back…we may see the return of the Canadian geese in the spring before the strength of our economy returns) gift-giving for some people may be limited or not even possible.

We must remember that there are other traditions to take part of during the holidays, and these traditions can be something as simple and free as writing nice notes on pieces of paper and leaving them in the mailboxes of friends and neighbors, or volunteering your time at a local non-profit organization, or building snowmen, or making strings of popcorn to decorate, or making homemade cards, or…the possibilities really are endless.

Even if you do not have any traditions, find something relaxing to do as often as you can to help relieve some of the stress you are feeling, and know that you are not alone! If you or someone you know has thoughts of suicide, please call either Pathways at 2-1-1 (or 345-HELP) or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.

--Brittany Schumann
Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Three Noses

When I first applied for the position as Suicide Prevention Coordinator, I told several of my close acquaintances. When I got the interview, I told more people about the job. Since my first day on the job, I have told even more people about my job.

Nearly every time I tell someone that I am the Suicide Prevention Coordinator at Mental Health America of Licking County, I am given either strange or sympathetic looks. (Thankfully, I do get the occasional look of admiration, along with the comment that I am doing very tough work.) At first, I understood why people I knew gave me the looks of sympathy or fear. Suicide is one of the last taboos in America. We can freely talk about sex, pedophilia, homosexuality, HIV/AIDS, and abortion. But mention suicide, and people take several steps back, like you’ve just grown a second nose.

This is why I have a job. Since people don’t talk to their friends, parents, children, and so on about suicide, not many people know the truth about it. Unfortunately, this also means that the rate of suicide in America is still alarmingly high. Most of the completed suicides stem from mental illness, most often depression. Depression is a treatable brain disorder (another word for mental illness). Logically, this means that suicide is preventable if depression is caught early enough. Having just attended Gatekeeper training with the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, I would like to impart some of my knowledge about how to prevent suicide to you.

When we encounter stressful or threatening situations in our lives, our brain (three pounds of protoplasm housed in our skulls) helps protect us. With the way the economy and politics are going, more Americans will be facing stressful and threatening situations in their lives. Our brain, or more specifically, our amygdala, releases three different hormones that are related to fight-or-flight. We become equipped to either stand up for ourselves (fight) or escape the danger (flight).

• Testosterone is what gives us strength in our muscles to either fight or run away.



• Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) moves blood flow from body functions that are not necessary for the fight-or-flight response, like digestion, to our muscles and brain.



• Cortisol soothes the body after fight or flight has taken place. (Ever used hydroCORTISONE cream to make swelling go away?)

There is only one problem. These days, none of us are chased by saber-toothed tigers or giant wooly mammoths; instead, we sit at our desks or on our couches, and when stressful or threatening situations occur, we don’t use up the testosterone, epinephrine or cortisol that are released into our system. As beneficial as these hormones are to our body, too much of them in our system destroy little things in our brains called neurons. Most often, the neurons in the part of our brain that stores short-term memory, mood and emotions, the hippocampus, are affected. The breaking down of the neurons that determine our emotions and moods causes people to become depressed.

Like I mentioned earlier, 90% of people who die by suicide suffer from some form of brain disorder (mental illness), mostly depression. Depression, like other mental illnesses (thanks, Kristen!), is highly treatable with medications and therapy. If we begin to screen everyone for depression, we can catch it, treat it, and prevent suicides.

I do hope that one day, I work myself out of a job, but there is much work to be done until then.

Oh yeah, and exercise as much as you can, and you can help save your neurons from destruction!

--Brittany Schumann

Suicide Prevention Coordinator