Delaware County Suicide Prevention Awareness Website

● ● ● ● ● ● Suicide Prevention Updates ● ● ● ● ● ●

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our 5th Annual Run/Walk on Saturday, May 1, 2010!! It was a fantastic event and we had over 350 people to come out and support suicide prevention!

Click here to view more photos from the Run/Walk!

Hope to see you all next year!!

STATEMENT FROM THE DELAWARE COUNTY SUICIDE PREVENTION AND AWARENESS TASK FORCE:

A Call to Action after the Norwood Events

It is the mission of the Delaware County Suicide Prevention and Awareness Task Force to define suicide as a preventable problem in Delaware County, to assess the status of suicide prevention efforts in the County, and to present a strategy to expand suicide prevention education in the County. The Task Force is driven by the loss of lives we experience each year, by the effect of suicide on family members and others, and by the burden that completed suicides and suicide attempts place upon police, emergency medical services, hospitals, crisis centers, and mental health providers.

Delaware County experiences an average of 45 to 60 suicides every year. There were 90 deaths by suicide in 2007. There have been 20 suicides since January 1. Suicide is a public health problem that crosses all age, race, gender, socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural boundaries.

In all cases these deaths come as a shock to the victim’s loved ones, others who knew the person even casually, and to the community. Survivors of suicide loss experience the grief that typically accompanies death in addition to struggling with stigma, guilt and shame.

Understanding the interaction of risk factors, triggers and warning signs is best communicated through ongoing suicide prevention educational programs, suicide assessment training, speaking with trained mental health professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, and the accurate, responsible reporting of the media including television, newspapers, and the internet. When postvention efforts become necessary, only trained mental health professionals should be called upon.
The Task Force strongly recommends that all mental health providers have policies for the initial screening of all new clients for suicide risk and for continual ongoing assessment of all those individuals found to be at risk.

The Task Force strongly recommends that all schools, public, private, and parochial, develop policies and strategies that promote good mental health and suicide prevention, educate staff and students about suicide risk factors, triggers, and warning signs, and provide protocols and procedures for postvention activities and crisis response.

Media exposure never helps anyone cope with or understand a suicide loss and can in fact encourage some people to attempt suicide. The Task Force strongly recommends that the media adhere to the 2005 recommendations of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, which state that the media needs to report responsibly and proactively on suicide prevention, and keep abreast of the research. Reporting on suicide can be accomplished in ways that serve public health. Provide your audience with information about how and why such tragedies occur and exercise your ethical obligation to friends and families of the deceased to minimize the emotional pain caused by media attention to the suicide. The media must be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

The events of Norwood remind us that suicide deaths can impact entire communities and counties, particularly when the deaths are common knowledge, have unrelenting media coverage, and have the potential to lead to further suicides.

Suicide pacts can form and unfold quickly and, although rare, they do happen and young people are especially vulnerable. The only effective preventative measure is education, information, and responsible, appropriate communication.

Members of suicide pacts may manifest individual signs of suicide. Indications include hopelessness, withdrawal from family or friends, dramatic mood changes, feelings of burdensomeness, allusions to death or suicide, giving away possessions or pets, and other signs that signal risk and need to be assessed by a mental health professional.

Lastly, we are reminded that the priorities after a suicide must be, 1) preventing further suicidal behavior and, 2) assuring support to the bereaved.

The Task Force is committed to dispelling myths and stigma that create barriers that keep people from seeking help and further complicate the grieving process.

The Task Force is committed to disseminating accurate information about the trends and reasons why suicide occurs and to raise awareness that this is a preventable community-wide problem.

The Task Force is committed to educating the community about suicide prevention and postvention using evidence-based programs.

The Task Force is committed to ensuring appropriate support is available and accessible in a timely manner following a suicide.

We are working to implement a protocol for an immediate and effective response to a community-wide suicide crisis. We will need the support of all Delaware County communities, and the cooperation and collaboration of police and other first responders, the media, public and private health and human service organizations, schools, and the clergy. Our goal is to be ready if and when a tragedy such as Norwood happens again.

This is our message: suicide is preventable in whatever form it occurs. We ask you to join us in our efforts to spread this message.

This statement is a compilation of multiple sources and individuals, cited below.

Text derived from materials written by:
Ellen Chung-Finnegan, MSW, LCSW
Terri Ehrbacher, PhD
Tony Salvatore, MA

References:
The Delaware County Suicide Prevention and Awareness Task Force (2009), Suicide Prevention in Delaware County: An Action Plan for 2009-2011.

The Delaware County Suicide Prevention and Awareness Task Force (2007), Suicide is a community-wide preventable health problem, informational brochure.

The Jason Foundation, Programs for the Awareness and Prevention of Youth Suicide, Working To Give Our Youth A Promise For Tomorrow, informational brochure. Hendersonville, TN.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (2005), The Role of the Media in Preventing Suicide. Article funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institutes of Health, distributed by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Prevention Resource Center, Oklahoma City, OK.

POSTER CONTEST WINNERS!

The Delaware County Suicide Prevention and Awareness Task Force is excited to announce the winners of it's 3rd Annual “Make A Difference!” Art with a Message Contest. The Task Force’s purpose is to promote understanding that suicide is a preventable community health problem in our county. The goal of this contest is to encourage emotional well-being by promoting the concepts of communication, hope, community and friendship, in an effort to prevent suicide.

This was a county-wide effort to encourage youth to value emotional health,communication and community as well as to express through art what they think and feel.

1st place: Veronica Verratti, St. Madeline-St. Rose School

2nd place: Jennifer Borio, St. Madeline-St. Rose School

3rd place: Danny Cirminiello, St. Madeline-St. Rose School

WINNERS will receive awards, public recognition, and winning artwork will be used as a T-shirt design and other promotional material for Task Force events/publications.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!!

Check out our NEW Spring 2010 newsletter!

Click here to view it!

This is our SEVENTH newsletter and we hope it continues to be a success!

We are looking for community submissions for future newsletter editions (due July 1st), so please feel free to email any material to Terri Erbacher at terbacher@dciu.org.

Learn more about what the
Delaware Co. Suicide Prevention & Awareness
Task Force is all about!

DCSPATF pamphlet
View or print a copy here

Click here to view the Task Force's Action Plan for 2009-2011.

● ● ● ● ● ● Six Fact Sheets ● ● ● ● ● ●

Firearms and Suicide
Suicide among Older Adults
Teen Suicide
Suicide and Serious Mental Illness
Alcohol and Suicide
Suicide among Adults in Pennsylvania

If you or someone you know needs immediate help, please contact the resources below.

Project REACH Mobile Crisis Outreach
(610) 352-4703

Crozer Chester Crisis Center
(610) 447-7600

Mercy Fitzgerald Crisis Center
(610) 237-4210

For more resources, click here.