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No Judgment. Just Help: What You Can Do to Support Suicide Prevention Month Efforts
Ask almost anyone about suicide, and you’ll likely find they have been personally impacted by the loss – or near loss – of a loved one. It’s perhaps not surprising given the statistics. In 2022 alone, more than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide, the highest number ever...
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We’re in a Mental Health Crisis. Why Do We Refuse to Help People with Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia?
90% of our country believes we are facing a mental health crisis.1 And whenever there is a tragic incident in New York City, our City and State say that yet another person with schizophrenia has fallen through the cracks.2 We have a solution staring us in the face which can help alleviate...
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Chronic Pain, Quality of Life, and Suicidal Behavior
In the mid-1970s, Quality of Life (QOL) was identified as a key medical concept (Berlim and Fleck, 2003). Readily adopted in oncology, the concept spread through different fields of medicine and eventually to psychiatry. Many tools were developed to take QOL from a subjective concept to a...
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Analysis of Social Media Language Using AI Models Predicts Depression Severity for White Americans, but Not Black Americans
Researchers were able to predict depression severity for white people, but not for Black people using standard language-based computer models to analyze Facebook posts. Words and phrases associated with depression, such as first-person pronouns and negative emotion words, were around three times...
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Preventing Suicide: Addressing Trauma-Related Symptoms in Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
The incidence of mental illness is pervasive in the United States, a recent estimate suggesting it impacts more than one in five adults (NIMH, 2023). While “mental illness” is a category that embodies all diagnoses, a subset of this category, serious mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia spectrum...
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How Mental Health Stigma Drives Suicide Risk
The inter-relationship between suicide risk, mental illness, and stigma against mental illness is multi-faceted and strong. Both mental illness and suicide are highly stigmatized. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) identifies mental illness as a significant risk factor for...
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NYS Office of Mental Health Announces Funding to Strengthen Suicide Prevention Efforts for Veterans and Uniformed Personnel
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) recently announced funding for a new initiative to strengthen resiliency and suicide prevention efforts among military Veterans and uniformed personnel, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical service members, and...
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Building Community Resilience: Prevention and Recovery Services Working Together
September and October were two of the busiest months of the year here at The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Each September, we observe by celebrating a strong and proud recovery community, promoting and supporting innovative treatment and recovery practices,...
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Resources to Address Mental Health and Resiliency in School Settings
Going to school during a pandemic can be challenging for families and schools. The following resources are designed to address mental health and resiliency in school settings. Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) Resources SAMHSA funds the MHTTC Network, which is a collaborative...
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Suicide Prevention is Everyone’s Business
September 10th of each year is World Suicide Prevention Day and that concurrent week is Suicide Prevention Week in the US. WellLife Network (WLN) routinely provides and offers community awareness and trainings for NYC and Long Island Communities. We would like to ask all agencies in NYC to...
