New purple stop signs unveiled to provide hope
September is Suicide Prevenion Month
In order to address suicide and overdose deaths, five purple stop signs have been recently installed around Grand Lake St. Marys.
The Auglaize County Suicide Prevention Coalition and Prevention Awareness Support Services held an unveiling for one of those signs at the Grand Lake St. Marys Campgrounds Tuesday morning. Seven signs will be distributed elsewhere in the county. The signs feature a hope line number to call as well as a number for active duty and veteran service members. “With a grant from the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, we were able to purchase 12 of the signs and we are going to post those throughout the community,” said PASS Associate Director
Joann Rosengarten said. “We also have 30 decals to be placed in different locations as well.”
She said it was one of her favorite activities the coalition had done.
“These signs save lives,” said Tammie Colon, executive director of the Auglaize, Allen and Mercer Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.
She said she had taken a call from a person at the reservoir who was
“There is no better time to invest in this type of work, the work that PASS does and our coalition. It is vital to our communities,” Colon said.
Statistics, while alarming, prove the need to reach out in all possible ways.
“Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the country. It’s the second leading cause of death for those ( ages) 10 to 24 and youth suicides are increasing at a rate
that it should be frightening to each and every one of us,” Colon said.
She said they wanted to get the community prepared and informed about the signs and symptoms so that they could support each other.
She said they were making these signs available in locations they know people go at their “deepest darkest moment when they are considering taking their own life.”
“Crisis calls across the nation have increased like 280% and we are seeing the exact same thing here,” Colon said. “We are still seeing successful suicides, especially among our youth.”
Coalition member Pastor Rick Shear from the Living Hope Assembly of God church shared his thoughts.
“Suicidal thoughts, much like mental health, can affect anyone at any age, any gender or any background. In fact, suicide is often the result of an untreated mental health condition,” he said, adding thatsuicidal thoughts, although common, should not be considered normal.
“In 2017 over 47,000 Americans took their own lives. The national suicide rate has risen steadily since the mid- 2000s,” Shear said.
He said there was still a stigma of suicide and feelings of shame that prevent people from opening up.
“September is National Suicide Prevention Month, Shear said. “We must not just use September as the opportunity to bring light to suicide prevention.”
Individuals, friends and families must have access to resources in order to provide support for those who suffer from mental illness and thoughts of suicide.”
I believe these signs will save lives; we don’t know how many lives this particular sign will save, but if it saves one it was worth every effort,” Shear said.
Auglaize County Workforce Development Director Amy Freymuth shared the story of her son Patrick’s suicide in 2016 and how he had his whole life ahead of him.
“He was fighting demons deep in his soul and kept it very well from us,” Freymuth said.
She said she was proud of the high school Gate Keepers program and the signs for making it OK to talk about some the deep dark secrets that individuals often have. She said Patrick showed some dark thoughts to his friends, but that they didn’t know where to go.
PASS board member Ronda Norris was pleased that there was a line specifically for veterans and active duty military members. Her son Bret Brown, who was in the U. S. Army, had died from a suicide in 2018.
“It’s a very worthwhile program and it brings attention to something nobody wanted to talk about for along time,” County Commissioner John Bergman said. “People are starting to talk about it more all the time which is a good thing. Discussion leads to a lot of good things.”