Senior Project Community Event:
For her senior project, Linnea – a member of our Youth Council – is organizing a concert that will benefit YSPP. She has decided to combine two of her passions: music and suicide prevention into a community event that will be held in Seattle on Saturday, May 8th. Linnea has named the event: HELP = HOPE: a night of fine arts for suicide prevention. She is recruiting more talent but has already gotten a commitment from the hip-hop group, Common Market. Plan to attend if you live in the area.
Sue and Jennifer recently facilitated a 3-hour suicide awareness workshop in Kelso called safeTALK. Through video simulations and role-play practice thirty-one participants from mental health agencies, schools, crisis services, and social service organizations learned how to respond to the “invitations” that the person at risk of suicide emits. Additional workshops have been scheduled for Port Angeles, Forks, Aberdeen, Mt Vernon and Ellensburg. Take a look at the training calendar for more details.
Trainer Questionnaire:
We have contracted with Renee Arcement and Gary Ouellette to conduct questionnaires with safeTALK and ASIST trainers. In the State of Washington we have over 65 trainers who deliver workshops to military and civilian personnel. We want to learn more about the challenges they face in organizing and facilitating workshops and how YSPP can support their continued to efforts.
Community Forums:
The YSPP Board is organizing two community forums - one in Burien in April and the second one in Spokane in May – to seek input and advice from stakeholders. Answers will help to shape our strategic direction. How do we help overcome the stigma that permeates the topic of suicide? Should schools be required to teach students the warning signs and skills for intervening with a suicidal friend? We will post the findings from these forums.
Many thanks to board members, Barbara Wolff and Joan Conrad for organizing the south King County forum and also to Jeri Hedrick – our newest board member – who is leading the charge in Spokane.
Increased Risk of Suicide:
The latest research confirms what we have believed for a long time: being a victim, perpetrator and/or witness can increase the risk for suicide. Heather Carter, our OUTLoud Project Coordinator, is working to develop a curriculum that specifically addresses the connection between verbal and physical harassment and suicide ideation. We have added content about bullying and suicide risk on our website.
New Suicide Death & Attempt Data:
We now have suicide death and attempt data for 2007. There were 784 non-fatal suicide attempts for Washington State youth (ages 10-24) that resulted in overnight hospitalization – not just an emergency room visit. There were 105 completed youth suicides (ages 15-24) in the same year: 2007.
You can find more information on the Department of Health website, including data by county and method - http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/emstrauma/injury/data_tables.
What makes a successful coalition?
What makes a successful coalition? Is it the facilitator? Is it the members who represent diverse organization? Does media involvement enhance the work of a coalition? We are asking ourselves these questions and developing a “scorecard” in the hopes of identifying the characteristics that make a group cohesive, effective, efficient and sustainable. If you have ideas, please let us know.
When it comes to suicide prevention: |
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In the hopes of preventing suicides, for years we have tried to understand why youth kill themselves. Now experts in the field believe that we must also look closely at the means by which youth kill themselves because we may have more success reducing suicide statistics if we focus on restricting access to guns and prescription pain killers. We have added content to our website with specific suggestions for parents and professional caregivers.