Making Suicide Prevention a Community Priority

By Rebecca Myers

There’s power in community and how it can shape critical conversations.

And a big conversation happening all over the globe is access to mental health and well-being resources and education. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated that need with people feeling the effects of isolation from stay-at-home orders and missing out on social events for the majority of a year.

Intertwined is suicide – a difficult public health crisis to talk about but one that affects people across all cultures, populations and age groups. Yet, it is preventable, and everyone and every community has a role to play to reduce stigma around mental wellness.

Community Conversation

Before the pandemic, the Dublin Police Department had planned to host a townhall focused on suicide prevention and education efforts. The aim was to include the public in an open dialogue and empower residents to know how they can impact suicide prevention efforts in their community.

While that in-person discussion was halted last spring, a growing emphasis on residents’ well-being has energized the need for education right now. Dublin Police is considering virtual options to continue this community conversation in 2021.

Susan Ortega, with local behavioral health agency Syntero, explains the need for that open dialogue.

“We need to make conversations about mental wellness as commonplace as talking about the weather or how well the Buckeyes played this week,” Susan says. “By making it the norm to really talk about how we are really doing, people who may be struggling with stressors, whether they’re mental health or substance abuse related – they will hopefully see that it’s OK to talk about those things openly.”

Having people share their stories as loss survivors, or people whose loved ones have died by suicide, can be a first step. Greg Lattanzi, a lieutenant with the Dublin Police, offers his experience about the death of his sister in order to encourage others to open up about this crisis and to connect people with the support they need.

“Talking about these issues,” Greg says, “provides a comfort level for other people who are struggling to come forward and seek treatment – and have difficult discussions that may save their life or save one of their loved ones’ lives.”

Personal Perspective

In 2015, after working a shift with the Dublin Police, Greg received a phone call from his mother that his older sister, Christina, wasn’t answering her phone. Greg’s mother wanted to know if he had heard from his sister recently. So, Greg says they decided his mom would take the 40-minute car trip to check on Christina, all while feeling that something didn’t seem right.

His mom couldn’t enter the apartment but noted there was a different car in his sister’s parking space. Greg remembers that made his instincts as a police officer start to kick in, trying to understand the situation and all the possible scenarios. He asked his mom to call the local police to conduct a wellness check.

After the officers arrived, they spent a long time inside. Greg waited on the phone with his mom who was sitting in the apartment’s parking lot; the police said Christina had died by suicide at home.

Greg says his sister had struggled with finances and had, a few months prior, lost her job, taking a pay decrease at the next position she found. He says he and his family had not seen clear signs that she could have been having suicidal ideation, directing them to realize the complexity of suicide.

“That’s just not characteristic of my sister,” he says, “so that’s what leads me to believe there was not just financial but mental health components to the struggles she was having.”

Susan Ortega says it’s not just one cause that leads to suicide. “It’s a complex, complicated picture. Just as we don’t have the ability to look at a person and know off the bat they have a physical health condition or concern,” she notes, “we can’t look at someone and know if they’re struggling with a mental health concern or suicidal thoughts.”

The call to action for Greg became researching risk factors of suicide, coping mechanisms for families and available treatment opportunities in different communities.

“For whatever reason, she didn’t reach out to someone,” he says of his sister, “and whether that was because she didn’t know that she could, she didn’t know where those resources were, she didn’t know how to pay for them or she didn’t want to burden us by telling us she was having these problems – in and of itself is disheartening.”

So, Greg says people need to learn how to recognize the signs of suicidal ideation, be empowered to notify someone, and help direct themselves or others to professional assistance.

“I don’t want other people to have to go through what she obviously was going through and what we went through in the aftermath of feeling like we missed something.”

The next step, Greg says, includes communities creating a comfort level where people know to call a mental health provider, a hospital, the police department or someone who can navigate a crisis situation so a person doesn’t harm themselves.

Resilience through Resources

As director of strategic partnerships and initiatives with Syntero for Franklin County, Susan notes her agency’s ongoing focus on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention (helping those affected by this crisis), as well as treatment within the Dublin community.

She teaches a lot about myths versus facts, and the biggest myth about suicide is that if you talk with someone about suicide, it will put the idea in their head.

“Talking about suicide actually has the opposite effect,” Susan says, noting that candidly addressing suicide can make people realize that if they can talk about it, then maybe there’s another way to deal with the concerns they’re having.

Susan also emphasizes connectedness and the importance of feeling united with others.

“We need to act as if everyone could benefit from that genuine, human connection, because they can. If it’s a simple ‘hello’ or holding the door open or a thoughtful card … whatever it might be, just that human connection is such a large importance.”

Mindfulness. Being mindful goes a long way. Susan says working to center yourself can help create good coping skills before you’re in crisis. She also encourages anyone who’s had suicidal ideation to have a conversation about life when things are going well in order to build those skills.

Helping others. Don’t offer to keep someone’s suicidal thoughts a secret, Susan advocates. If you have a concern about a person’s safety but don’t know how to talk to them directly, Susan says to reach out to someone else.

“You can say something, such as, ‘This is really important, and I want to make sure you have the support you deserve. Can I go with you to talk to someone?’”

Reducing stigma. Practice saying the words: “Are you thinking about suicide?” It’s not a comfortable thing to say, Susan notes, but it’s important to prepare yourself to be in the position to help others when necessary.

Finding Hope

“One of the things that gives me hope that this gets better is there are more resources now available to people struggling with mental health than there were when I started in this profession,” Greg says of his 15 years in law enforcement. “I continue to see resources and opportunity [like well-trained professionals in Dublin] … that are available for folks to seek out, and that even starts at a young age with resources that are available within the school system.”

Dublin City Schools, through a partnership between Syntero and school counselors, provides Signs of Suicide, or the SOS program, aimed at educating young people about adolescent depression and how to notice changes in themselves or friends that could trigger suicidal ideation. This work has continued during the pandemic.

Susan says Dublin’s students give her hope because of their willingness to look out for one another, especially during a time of widespread isolation. Students are bringing light to a needed discussion and living out the City of Dublin’s value to be a thriving, connected community, she says.

“The Police Department and community is in a really neat and hopeful place to have those conversations, because it just takes starting it,” she says. “We just gotta talk about it.”

Rebecca Myers is a public information officer for the City of Dublin. Feedback welcome at rrmyers@dublin.oh.us

If you’re having thoughts of suicide, reach out to someone. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text “4HOPE” to 741-741

Learn more about services from Syntero at syntero.org. The Franklin County Suicide Prevention Coalition also offers local resources and training to help people who may be considering suicide. Visit franklincountyspc.org.