It’s that time of the year where every month is getting busy fast, but I’d like to tell you about an event you should slow down for.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, and Friday, Sept. 11, the Suicide Prevention Symposium is being held, hosted by the Suicide Prevention Coalition — a team of mental health and other organizations such as Avail Solutions, Del Mar College, MHID, Corpus Christi Medical Center-Bayview, Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation, NAMI Greater Corpus Christi, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Strengthening Wellness. Say that 10 times fast.
Per usual, Thursday will be NAMI Night, and anyone is welcome to attend. The night will start with a brief presentation on how to help someone who’s in crisis. After that, there will be a panel
discussion focused on youth suicide. The panel will include some young women and professionals who have experience with suicide.
This is so important. I feel like I tell y’all this often, but here it is again: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, someone in the U.S. dies by suicide every 11 minutes.
It doesn’t matter how many times I read it — it’s shocking. My daughter is 11 and my son turns 10 in two days. It more than shocks me; it flat-out terrifies me.
But that’s why events like the symposium are so important. We must be able to talk about suicide openly, without stigma and blame. Detaching stigma from both mental illness and suicide can literally save lives.
It can be preventable, and it’s everyone’s job to prevent it.
I hope to see a large crowd on Sept. 10. And at Friday’s event. Friday, Sept. 11, is Professionals’ Day from 8 a.m. to noon. Professionals, providers and community members are invited to join for free continuing education sessions, resources and collaborations. This year we have a wonderful keynote speaker, Dr. Sarah Skelton, Psy.D., CSAC. After Dr. Skelton’s speech, there will be two breakout sessions.
I beg you to make time for this free, two-day event. You’ll learn so much on both days, and who can pass up a free event? Or CEUs?
All you have to do is register.
I hope to see you there; we’ve got work to do.
Visit bit.ly/2026sps to register for the symposium.
For more than 20 years, Heather Loeb has experienced major depression, anxiety, an eating disorder and a personality disorder, while also battling the stigma of mental health. She is the creator of Unruly Neurons (unrulyneurons.com), a blog dedicated to normalizing depression, and is the affiliate leader of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Greater Corpus Christi.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: It's everyone's job to prevent suicide. Symposium aims to help
