#JamesDonaldson on #MentalHealth – Experts Say A Few Simple Questions Can Help Prevent #Suicide

by Callie Rainey | News Channel 3

Experts say a few simple questions can help prevent #suicide. Dr. Gerstenhaber created the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), which helps scree people for suicide, and helps get help for those who need it most.

For more than a decade, #suicide rates had been rising. Worldwide almost one million people die by #suicide every year. In Michigan, it was one of the top ten leading causes of death, according to the #CentersforDiseaseControlandPrevention.

Dr. Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber is the founder of The Columbia Lighthouse Project, an organization aimed at saving lives worldwide.

She said 50% of people who commit #suicide had seen a primary care physician the month before they die, and because of that, Dr. Gerstenhaber said, “we need to be ask questions the way we monitor for blood pressure, and we need to do it well before the doctors office.”

The co-director, Dr. Keita Franklin, said half of the people struggling have known #mentalhealthproblems, but the other half don’t.

“So we’ve got to have strategies targeted at #mental hospitals, and then strategies that are targeted to everyone else,” said Dr. Franklin. “By that I mean communities, friends, neighbors, employers, coaches, and all sorts of gatekeepers that touch people where they work, live and thrive.”

Dr. Franklin said what is known is that when people are suffering, they don’t necessarily ask for help.

The Columbia Lighthouse Project said we need to normalize the conversation about #mentalhealth and find the people suffering in silence.

“It shouldn’t be something we’re scared to do, or cause us a nervous feeling. The more we can practice these conversations, and ask people how they’re doing, the better we know people will do in the long run,” said Dr. Franklin.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Dr. Gerstenhaber created the Columbia-#Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), which helps screen people for #suicide, and helps get help for those who need it most.

Six questions in the Columbia-#Suicide Severity Rating Scale:

1. Have you wished you were dead or wished you could go to sleep and not wake up?
2. Have you actually had any thoughts of killing yourself? (If they answer yes, ask 3, 4, 5 and 6. If they answer no, ask question 6.)
3. Have you been thinking about how you might do this?
4. Have you had these thoughts and had some intention of acting on them?
5. Have you started to work out or worked out the details of how to kill yourself? Do you intend to carry out this plan?
6. Have you ever done anything, started to do anything, or prepared to do anything to end your life? (If yes, ask if it was in the past three months.)

Click here to see the full breakdown, which includes a low, moderate or high risk scale.

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