30 Days of Mental Health - Part IV

Continued

It is important to understand the differences between attempted suicide, thinking about suicide, and self-harm. Educating youth about all three is critical to intervening and reducing the likelihood that they may occur.

• Understanding the signs and symptoms of mental health deterioration helps with recognizing when one should access services or lean on trusted others for support. By exploring and discussing common warning signs that present right before a mental health crisis, children and youth will be more aware and prepared to support themselves and others.
• Learning about the various types of mental health resources in one’s local and virtual community is an important part of reducing stigma and increasing access to services. This is a great collaborative exercise to do with a whole class to learn about and identify the range of mental health resources that are available in the community, by phone, and online.
• We all want to help others when they are hurting and in distress, and it can be beneficial to the helper and helpee. However, we often don’t know what to say and how to help them in times of crisis. This is a skill that can be learned to enable children and youth to offer their friends support during emotionally challenging times.
• It is important for children and youth to know the limits of the support that they can provide to peers and to know that it is OK to share sensitive information with adults when they think that someone needs more help than they can give. Reaching out for help can be done in ways that don’t feel like betrayal.

I stumbled across this graphic this week and it was just profound to me. The thermometer shows the levels of suicidality (passive, active, ect).

Just talking to someone about suicide will not make them more likely to become suicidal. Talking to someone may help them take a step back and re-evaluate or ask for the help they need.