Workshop to cover suicide prevention
This month, the SCV Suicide Prevention, Postvention and Wellness Committee is hosting its first suicide prevention workshop with the community, held at City Hall.
On Sept. 24, the community is invited to join the committee at the council chambers from 6 to 8 p.m. The suicide prevention intervention response training session is planned to help people learn about ways to identify the early warning signs of suicidal tendencies, and how to also get help should they be contemplating suicide, said Larry Schallert, assistant director of Student Health and Wellness/Mental Health at College of the Canyons and chair of the committee.
Santa Clarita City Councilman Bob Kellar, a member of the committee, said he is pleased the workshop is coming together.
“This is a very important issue not only in the SCV, but across our country,” he said. “With such an increased number of suicides, I know this issue will only continue to affect us if we do not try to stop it. I have attended a number of meetings, and I feel very strongly about this.
“Anything we can do to bring awareness to families and friends of people that might be in a questionable circumstance is very beneficial and the right thing to do,” he said.
The committee, which has spent the past five and a half years working to decrease the number of people who end their lives in the SCV, has worked with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, Bridge to Home, the SCV Senior Center and other institutions.
“Prevention isn’t always knowing the warning signs,” Schallert said. “Sometimes it’s also about listening, and that’s what we want the community to realize we all need to do more of.”
“We’re gonna be teaching about mental health issues at this workshop, and the risk factors for people in distress and what are some of the warning signs that somebody might be contemplating suicide,” he said. “It’s also going to boil down to what anyone can do to help somebody who’s distressed. We’ll talk about depression, means prevention, and even talk a little about people who are inclined to hurt others.
“As long as people like PowerPoints, I think they’ll learn a lot,” he said.