Virtual discussion of suicide prevention set for Badger Club | Guest Opinion

The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness in a given year, and one in 25 U.S. adults has a serious mental illness.

As we work through the COVID-19 pandemic, experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are strategizing how to best cope with short-term and long-term mental health impacts of the disease, which may be caused by self-isolation, grief over loss of loved ones and economic hardships.

I am grateful these organizations are giving attention to these issues because I have personally experienced mental illness, thoughts of killing myself and the loss of a loved one to suicide. My 16-year-old son, Tom’s, suicide in March 2015 changed my life.

Beyond what you might expect from my grief journey, Tom’s death opened my eyes to the startling statistics around suicide and indicators of mental illness. Within a year of his death, I realized there were signs Tom was thinking about suicide that he did not specifically express and that we missed. This epiphany called me to become a suicide prevention advocate in hopes of educating others so they would not have to experience similar grief.

Since Tom’s passing, I have become more aware of how our society stigmatizes people who experience mental illness and thoughts of suicide through how we speak about it in personal conversation, how they are portrayed in our entertainment and how they are talked about in the news.

I will talk about this during a free webinar to be offered June 4 from noon until 1 p.m. Those who register for “Talking About Suicide: Our Words Matter” will have an opportunity to submit questions.

Stigmatizing language is ingrained in our culture; we use it without thinking about its impact because it has always been this way. But using this language can lead those with mental illness and thoughts of suicide to feel marginalized, and therefore unable to speak openly. This, in turn, can lead to them not pursuing treatment.

It is time to change how we speak about mental illness — just as we have learned to do with stigmatizing language around race, people with disabilities and physical characteristics.

My goals are to introduce the definition, causes and treatments for mental illness; and to help our community understand how easy it is to stigmatize mental illness. I will share guidelines for how to speak about mental illness and suicide, how to speak with survivors of suicide loss, what to do when you catch yourself speaking in a stigmatizing way and how to approach others who use stigmatizing language.

The Depression Project reports the six top reasons people with mental illness do not reach out are fear of judgment, guilt, shame, feeling misunderstood, fear of rejection and fear of criticism. Changing our vocabulary is part of helping those with thoughts of suicide to feel more comfortable asking for help. I hope to equip you to support loved ones, friends and community members as we move through this pandemic and beyond. Our words truly do matter.

The webinar is co-sponsored by the Columbia Basin Badger Club, the Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition, the Mid-Columbia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, and the Benton-Franklin Community Health Alliance. Registration to receive the Zoom link is required at www.columbiabasinbadgers.com. There is no cost to register, and the event is open to all.

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Virtual discussion of suicide prevention set for Badger Club | Guest Opinion."