Hope4Utah Suicide Prevention Meeting at Lone Peak

My notes come from the slides that were presented tonight and a brief conversation I had with one of the mental health counselors. I encourage anyone interested in more information to visit hope4utah.com and to "like" the Lone Peak Community 4 Hope Facebook page.

Dr. Gregory Hudnall with Hope4Utah presented. He focuses on suicide prevention. In Provo they put together a community task force, which took about four years but helped eliminate teen suicide at the Provo school.

Utah is in what is considered the suicide belt. We are #9 in the U.S. for suicides in ages between 15-24. Suicide is the #1 cause of death for youth ages 10-17 in Utah.

This is not a Lone Peak problem. This is a community issue. Get away from the blame game and move forward to help heal the community. Don’t blame the school, church, parents, media, etc.

Goal is to prevent another suicide

·         Alpine Crisis Team and school counselors

·         Work with media

·         Identify those most at risk

·         Provide information & resources available in community

At risk students

·         History of suicide attempts

·         Dealing with stressful life events such as death or divorce

·         Family members or close friends of the deceased

·         Received phone call/text/other communication from the deceased foretelling suicide

·         May have fought with or bullied the deceased

Contagion

·         Sensationalism in newspapers can increase risk of suicides

·         1% to 5% of suicides among young persons could be explained as pure contagion

·         It is vital to avoid romanticizing. Show respect for the deceased while at the same time avoiding hero worship and romanticizing of the suicide. Distinguish between the act and the person.

·       Meet with at risk kids one-on-one instead of in a group.

Seek to Understand

·         Gathering data (organized by Hope leaders)

·         10-15 community cottage meetings with youth to better understand

·         10-15 community cottage meetings with adults to better understand

Long Term Approach

·         Full time mental health counselor at Lone Peak (Districts, parents, and community need to pay for this). This is much needed at Lone Peak. It can’t be only on the District to figure out how to pay for this. THIS IS A COMMUNITY ISSUE! It’s about $75,000/year if it’s through Wasatch Mental Health instead of becoming an employee of the school.

·         Educate community (Circles4hope)

·         Partner with NAMI, AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention), Communities that Care

·         Review data and make recommendations

·         Implement programs, if needed

·         Stay the course. It took 4 years to change the culture in the Provo school, but they then went 9 years without a suicide.

How to Help

·         Spend a lot of time listening to the youth. Don’t try to “fix” emotional concerns - listen and let them know we are available to help. Focus on hope. Help them get to the resources they need.

·         Simply saying “pray, fast, read your scriptures and all will be well” doesn’t help these kids. They need to be heard and feel loved. Acknowledge their grief.

·         Let the youth grieve how they want. Everyone handles grief in a different way.

·         Let youth know the goal is to prevent further suicides. Have meaningful discussions on where to go from here and how to prevent additional suicides.

·         Use Lone Peak Community 4 Hope as a resource for trainings for youth and adults.

What’s Next?

·         Lone Peak Community 4 Hope is assembling a list of Utah County resources and will make that available to all.

·         Cottage meetings will be scheduled very soon.