Health and Fitness NAMI Wakulla Plans Dec. 7th Communitywide Discussion on Climbing Rate of Suicides in Wakulla County
Written by Cheryl Creel, NAMI Wakulla Monday, 23 November 2009 13:10
NAMI Wakulla Plans Dec. 7th Communitywide Discussion on Climbing Rate of Suicides in Wakulla County
An unexplained increase in the number of suicides in Wakulla County has prompted NAMI Wakulla to hold a Dec. 7th communitywide discussion on suicide led by prevention experts and local leaders.
In the past 10 months, the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Department (WCSD) has recorded six suicides, a statistic higher than Florida’s suicide rate, and three times greater than suicide deaths reported in the county in previous years.
"To respond effectively to a cluster of suicides within a community, we must determine what factors are coming together to influence such behavior," said Frank Zenere, of the Miami Dade County School Crisis Management Program, one of the panel members.
Florida’s Statewide Agency on Suicide Prevention has arranged for Zenere to talk about “postvention,” methods for families, friends and communities to cope with suicide’s painful aftermath.
Joining Zenere will be Dr. Kay Colvin-Guthrie, a Tallahassee psychiatrist and mental health advocate, along with community leaders and experts who have had hands-on experience with various aspects of suicide.
The panel members include:
• Cathy Price of the Wakulla County Health Department and School System
• The Rev. Keith Wallace of the Lake Ellen Baptist Church
• The Rev. Daniel Cooksey of the Ivan Assembly of God, and
• Det. Bruce Ashley of the WCSD.
Price, a NAMI Wakulla board member, has volunteered to join the panel because of her professional work with children in Wakulla County’s school system, and her experience with suicide in her personal life.
“I have family members who have committed suicide and friends whose husbands have committed suicide,” Price said. One of the husbands was a veteran, a demographic group experiencing what some have determined to be an “epidemic” of suicides.
Price said in her work performing suicide evaluations within the schools, she has noticed that, unlike the past, school children now are more inclined to report their worries about their classmates.
“Knowledge is power, and that’s prevention,” Price said. “We can prevent suicide.”
The public is invited to NAMI Wakulla’s program on suicide, which begins at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7th at the Wildwood Inn.
NAMI Wakulla is an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
This information originally published on November 23, 2009.
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