In July, this video launched to raise international awareness about suicide and suicidal thinking in law enforcement. It features Det. Jode Sprague of the Denver Police Department talking openly about his own suicidal thinking. We spoke with him soon afterward about “coming out,” what crisis response looks like from his point of view, and more. (more…)
After the death of Robin Williams, a range of people spoke openly last week about, or from, their experiences with suicidal thinking. Here are some of their stories:
Cates Holderness, Michael Blackmon, John Stanton, Julia Pugachevsky and many others at Buzzfeed
Alastair Campbell in The Huffington Post
Dese’Rae Stage at Live Through This
Kay Redfield Jamison in The New York Times
Cheryl Sharp at Mashable
Deborah Serani in Psychology Today
Andrew Solomon in The New Yorker
Jenn Garing on Fox
Christa Scalies for WHYY
Leah Harris on HuffPost Live
Jake Mills in The Guardian
We’re taking a break for August, since it’s holiday season. We leave you with this update from Australia, where Suicide Prevention Australia recently held a Lived Experience Symposium that brought together attempt survivors and loss survivors to create a national manifesto that will be available for public comment later this month. Until then, here’s more about it. And for more about Mic Eales, the artist featured in the video above, there’s this. And here’s his beautiful PhD thesis.
Five years ago, Suicide Prevention Australia published the kind of confidence-builder that the new #WayForward report demands of U.S. mental health organizations: A statement of support for attempt survivors and others who’ve been suicidal. The Australian statement is here.
Organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere, your turn.