I have shared with you that my family has been deeply impacted by family members dying by suicide. It made a deep impression on my life when an aunt killed herself when I was only eight. We have lost over five in my family to suicide.

I have been working with the Veterans Hospital at Fort Root to see how we can help educate the public about suicide. We are facing an epidemic right now in our nation with 20 veterans a day dying by suicide. In 2014, 503 Arkansans died from suicide. We have not been open in talking about suicide and the impact it is having in our community. We sometimes think that if we talk about it, we might encourage it.

We need to learn the warning signs so that we can intervene in case someone is contemplating suicide. To that end, I have invited Joy Gray from the Department of Health to educate us regarding suicide. We need to ease the stigma of asking for help. It doesn’t make a person weak or crazy. To quote the suicide prevention pamphlet, “Most people who express suicidal thoughts or intentions are not psychotic or insane. Depression and emotional pain are not always signs of mental illness and carries a high risk of suicide.”

Arkansas rank at number 16 in the nation for suicides. Think about that for a minute. We are a small state and we rank 16th in the nation. We don’t put any state money into prevention programs, the hotline number that people can call are staffed by people in in states bordering Arkansas. Become an advocate.
Suicide is a tragedy that we can help prevent, not something shameful that we have to hide.