PREVENTING SUICIDE
Rensselaer County hosts classes on how to help others
TROY, N.Y. >> The gymnasium inside of St. John’s Episcopal Church on 1st Street was filled Tuesday morning with community members hoping to gain insightful information related to suicide prevention.
The Rensselaer County Mental Health Department and its suicide prevention task force hosted a half- day alertness Safe Talk training that prepares anyone 15 or older, regardless of prior experience or training, to become a suicide-alert helper.
Rensselaer County Mental Health Commissioner Kathy Alonge- Coons said that the county’s suicide prevention task force has organized these talks in the past, but not that recently and they felt that they should offer them more often again since the county continues to see confirmed suicide deaths increase each year since 2015.
Alonge- Coons said in 2015, the county saw eight completed suicides. In 2016 there were 15, in 2017 there were 18 and from Jan. 1 through March 10 of this year, there were six.
“I think [the Safe Talk] is going well so far and we are looking to do more over the next year,” said Alonge- Coons during a break from one of the sessions.
The Safe Talk is designed to help people recognize some of the signs and how to deal with someone with those thoughts. Alonge-Coons said some of those signs could include things like someone becoming withdrawn and depressed. Sometimes people will talk about wanting to die.
“[ Earlier Tuesday morning] we were learning about how about one in 20 people at any given time are contemplating suicide,” said Alonge- Coons. “..there are often opportunities where if we’re observant and listening we can pick up on opportunities to directly ask someone if they’re considering suicide.”
Officials said that most people with thoughts of suicide don’t truly want to die, but are struggling with pain in their lives.
“[ This training] gives you the information that you need, the steps to take, gets rid of any myths that you might have learned about suicide, it just gets you activated and believing that you can be alert to this [ kind of stuff] all of the time... and that’s what Safe Talk asks you to do, to put the thought of suicide in the forefront of your brain,” said volunteer Safe Talk instructor Lynn Keyes.