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Preventing Suicide During the Pandemic
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The author is served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...
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Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in LGBTQ Youth
The suicide rates for youth, especially between the ages of 15 and 19, have increased dramatically. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for the ages 10 to 24. It is believed that this reflects a higher level of psychological distress in today’s youth. The suicide rates are even...
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Clergy and Faith Communities Perspective and Role in Suicide Prevention
At a time when the suicide rates continue to increase and more lives are lost every day, it is prudent to create more awareness among the many gatekeepers and stakeholders in the community. One of the more prominent among them are CLERGY and the many different communities they serve–focusing on...
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Socially Connected, Physically Distanced: How to Be There for Someone Experiencing Suicidal or Emotional Crisis During COVID-19
While everyone is feeling challenged during COVID-19, it can be particularly difficult for those with existing mental health conditions or people who feel particularly lonely or isolated due to COVID-19. “Social distancing” recommendations, concerns about their own health and the health of...
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Empowering Adults to Recognize and Respond to Youth in Suicidal Distress
The statistics regarding youth mental health are not only strikingly frightening but they point to the inexcusable reality that what is currently being done to address the problem is not working. According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five teens and young adults live...
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Strengthening Protective Factors to Prevent Bullying and Suicide on Staten Island
In recent years, Staten Island (SI) has taken up the nationwide call to action to address suicidal behaviors among youth. During a May 2018 roundtable discussion on mental health issues facing youth, hosted by local elected officials and attended by a multisectoral group of professionals from...
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Zero Suicide in the United States
We have started to finally recognize and respond to the serious public health concerns about suicide in the United States. The “Zero Suicide” (ZS) initiative was developed to provide a systemic approach to the prevention of suicide (Laboullere, et al., 2018). In 2010 the National Action...
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From the Publisher: A Personal Journey From a Survivor of Suicide: “From the Depths of Despair to a Mission of Advocacy”
I was drifting in and out of consciousness in the emergency room. “You have to drink this,” someone was saying as they held a tall plastic cup to my lips, filled with a tasteless ink-black liquid. I later learned that the charcoal drink was given to me to absorb the toxic soup that was in my...
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Know the Signs: Help Prevent a Loved One’s Suicide
The following is a true story by a Beacon Health Options employee. Anna was one of the most talented and creative people I had ever known, and just about everyone who met her felt the same. She was a perfectionist to a fault, and there was seemingly nothing that she did not do well. The one person...
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Does Our Healthcare System Perpetuate an Epidemic?
Suicide has been rightly classified as an epidemic, as evidenced by a precipitous increase in its incidence in recent decades. Between 1999 and 2018, the rate of completed suicides has risen by 35% in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Some authors suggest suicide...
