Content Warning: Suicide
September is Suicide Prevention Month and the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Coalition (FCSPC) is inviting community members to learn how they can get involved. The FCSPC, hosted by MHAOhio and funded by the ADAMH Board of Franklin County, works to prevent suicide through raising awareness, providing education, and creating partnerships. It applies national suicide prevention recommendations to local prevention work.
One such strategy, recommended by the CDC, is the coordination of suicide prevention training for the community. These trainings teach life-saving skills, such as recognizing warning signs for suicidal behavior and how to connect loved ones with support services. In 2021, the FCSPC conducted its Community Partner Survey, which measures perceived access to suicide prevention services. Twenty seven percent of respondents felt that access to education and training for service providers was only “poor” or “fair”. When asked to rate access to education and training among the general public, that number rose to forty one percent of survey participants indicating access was only “poor” or “fair”. In response to this gap, the coalition partners with member organizations to coordinate a variety of suicide prevention trainings for healthcare facilities, nonprofits, businesses, and other organizations.
To help improve access to these resources in multilingual communities across Central Ohio, the coalition’s Multilingual Suicide Prevention Awareness Project creates and shares suicide prevention training content in languages such as Spanish, Swahili, and Somali, hosted by experts from each community. Providing resources in multiple languages is essential to the goal of making sure all Ohioans recognize the warning signs of suicidal behavior and know how to react in a time of crisis. Outreach and prevention efforts that are targeted and culturally specific help save lives.
“Everyone can play a role in suicide prevention,” says Michelle Vargas, Director of the FCSPC.
In addition to participating in trainings, community members can actively work to change the culture, which often stigmatizes suicide. We know from the FCSPC’s 2020 Community Readiness Assessment that community members are reluctant to talk about suicide due to perceived taboo. Stigma in our community silences some community members from reaching out and asking for help. Because people are less likely to talk about suicide, those who are struggling often suffer in silence, feeling alone. The reality is that the rate of suicide attempts leading to hospitalization increased from 11.6 in the Franklin County 2016 HealthMap to 13.5 in the Franklin County 2022 HealthMap.
“We want people to know that if they’re struggling, they are not alone,” says Vargas. “Recovery is possible and help is available.”
Community members can help decrease stigma and increase awareness of support services by following @FCSPCoalition on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and sharing its content.
Another way that community members can get involved in suicide prevention efforts is by donating to the FCSPC’s Suicide Prevention Month fundraiser, going on now through September 15. Donations will allow the FCSPC to bring suicide prevention programming to more community members. To donate, visit @MHAOhio on Facebook or visit https://mhaohio.app.neoncrm.com/forms/fcspc.
“Together, as a community, we can work together to save lives,” says Vargas.
