Walk planned Sept. 24 to educate, raise awareness about suicide prevention

Ford Powers knows there must be teens at his school who’ve thought about suicide.

He now has the tools to help if any of his classmates or friends seem headed down that path.

The 16-year-old junior at Chiawana High School in Pasco recently took part in a training session aimed at helping students learn the signs and the steps to take to prevent suicide.

“We know that in the Tri-City area, it’s been kind of an issue recently,” Powers said. “We want to make sure it doesn’t affect any students here.”

Mark Lee, Benton-Franklin county field organizer for the Youth Suicide Prevention Program, led the training.

Student leaders like Ford learned to spot the signs, ask the right questions and to seek adult help. They’ll take what they learned back to Chiawana next week, spreading the knowledge to the entire student body.

Lee also works with other schools and agencies, sharing similar training.

And his group is helping coordinate a walk — the eighth annual Walk About to Talk About Suicide Prevention — on Sept. 24, aimed at raising awareness.

The one-mile walk starts at 10:30 a.m. in the parking lot at Outback Steakhouse, 6819 W. Canal Drive, Kennewick.

It’s free and open to the public. The first 100 participants will get a coupon for a free Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse.

The Benton-Franklin Suicide Prevention Coalition is partnering on the walk.

On average, more than 100 people die each day by suicide in the U.S., and many more attempt suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Washington, youth suicide is on the rise and now is the second-leading cause of death among young people, according to information from Lee’s group.

Between January and August of this year, at least 26 people in Benton and Franklin counties died by suicide, Lee said. Four were under age 24.

He said there’s hope — “We can interrupt the process. We can talk about it.”

And train young people to get involved.

Mary Gutierrez, a counselor at Chiawana, said giving teens like Ford knowledge and tools is powerful.

“We figured the message would be heard if we had (peers delivering it to one another),” she said. “There are too many things going on in our community. We need to engage our students.”

Ford said he appreciated the training — it made him realize there are things he can do.

“The main thing I took from it was how simple and easy it is to be a light to somebody,” he said.

For more on the Youth Suicide Prevention Program, go to yspp.org.

This story was originally published September 22, 2016 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Walk planned Sept. 24 to educate, raise awareness about suicide prevention."