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Suicide Prevention and Response: Fostering Trust and Safety in Vulnerable Communities
Suicide carries grief and mourning and encompasses assumptions, histories, and fantasies. It holds the dialectic of abbreviated narratives and hope-filled storylines for those who survive. 2022 U.S. data from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) indicates that 1.6 million adults...
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Schools and Suicide Prevention: A 3-Tiered Approach
Suicide is a complex issue with devastating consequences that disproportionately affect young people. Schools, as central hubs of a child’s life, play a crucial role in suicide prevention by addressing behavioral and emotional difficulties that threaten to interfere with a child’s ability to...
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Advancing Suicide Prevention: The Role of Technology and AI in Mental Health Care
Suicide rates in the U.S. have reached alarming levels, with 13.2 million adults experiencing serious suicidal thoughts annually, 3.8 million making a plan, and 1.6 million attempting suicide. These statistics reflect a public health emergency that demands urgent attention. Yet, access to quality...
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Leadership’s Responsibility for Postvention Following a Death by Suicide
While society has grown more open to discussions centering around suicide - both its prevention and its impact on survivors - the subject remains fraught among mental health clinicians who have treated people who have died in this manner. The death of a client by suicide can elicit in providers...
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NYSPA Report: New Federal Policy in Support of Suicide Prevention
Earlier this year, the Biden Administration launched a new national strategy on Suicide Prevention. According to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): In the United States, someone dies by suicide every 11 minutes; the rates of suicidal behaviors have...
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Leveraging Digital Tools: Innovative Technology for Suicide Prevention and Support in Healthcare
Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with over 700,000 people taking their own lives each year (World Health Organization, 2021). Beyond the immense emotional toll it inflicts on families and friends, suicide places a heavy burden on healthcare systems. Over recent years,...
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Commentary: Break Down Walls Between Services for Mental Health, Addiction
One in four. That’s how many adults in the U.S. living with severe mental illness are also living with substance use disorders. In New York, 1.4 million people are living with both mental health and substance use challenges. Yet these issues are too often addressed as distinct and separate,...
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Black Women and Suicide: The Silent Crisis and Its Aftermath on Families
Suicide among Black women is a heartbreaking and complex issue that has often been overlooked in public health discussions. Despite the cultural narratives of strength and resilience surrounding Black women, they face mental health challenges that are deeply rooted in historical and social...
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The Heavy Burden of Suicide Survivor’s Guilt: Understanding, Coping and Moving Forward
Family, friends, and even mere acquaintances are left with a wide range of feelings after someone in their life commits suicide. Feelings of responsibility, regret, and helplessness manifest in a complex experience called Survivor’s Guilt. This painful guilt grows from a sense of intense remorse...
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Up, Up, and Aware: What Superman Can Teach Us About Mental Health
Chanukah came early for me this year with the release of James Gunn's Superman trailer. Superheroes have always soared through our imaginations, but lately, they’ve landed squarely in the world of mental wellness. As a rabbi, comic book aficionado (once called “New York’s Hippest Rabbi”...
