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Socially Connected, Physically Distanced: How to Be There for Someone Experiencing Suicidal or Emotional Crisis During COVID-19
While everyone is feeling challenged during COVID-19, it can be particularly difficult for those with existing mental health conditions or people who feel particularly lonely or isolated due to COVID-19. “Social distancing” recommendations, concerns about their own health and the health of...
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Clergy and Faith Communities Perspective and Role in Suicide Prevention
At a time when the suicide rates continue to increase and more lives are lost every day, it is prudent to create more awareness among the many gatekeepers and stakeholders in the community. One of the more prominent among them are CLERGY and the many different communities they serve–focusing on...
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Zero Suicide in the United States
We have started to finally recognize and respond to the serious public health concerns about suicide in the United States. The “Zero Suicide” (ZS) initiative was developed to provide a systemic approach to the prevention of suicide (Laboullere, et al., 2018). In 2010 the National Action...
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Know the Signs: Help Prevent a Loved One’s Suicide
The following is a true story by a Beacon Health Options employee. Anna was one of the most talented and creative people I had ever known, and just about everyone who met her felt the same. She was a perfectionist to a fault, and there was seemingly nothing that she did not do well. The one person...
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Dr. Richard Juman Interviews Dr. John Draper on Suicidality
In support of Suicide Prevention Month, Dr. Richard Juman, TeamHealth National Director of Psychological Services, recently interviewed Dr. John Draper, the Director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Listen as Dr. Juman and Dr. Draper discuss the challenging time we are all facing and...
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Approaching the Tipping Point: It’s Time to Re-Think Mental Health Care for Older Americans
The statistics are clear: Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population – in fact, Americans over age 65 will soon outnumber children. Data indicate that older adults are at increased risk for mental health disorders, and elder suicide in particular is a growing public...
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Physical Illness, Depression, and Late-Life Suicide: Considerations and Opportunities for Enhancing Suicide Prevention
Suicide rates in the United States increased from an age-adjusted rate of 11.3/100,000 in 2007 to 14.0/100,000 in 2017 (CDC Fatal Injury Data). During that same period, rates among adults 65 and older remained higher than the national rate, climbing from 14.3 to 17.1/100,000. Increased risk for...
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We Need to Do More Than Just Talk About Mental Illness
Reprinted from The Hill There was a time when no one talked about mental illness. But, today, every tragic shooting is accompanied by calls for greater access to mental health treatment. The wheels of legislation turn slowly, but mental illness is a public health crisis that requires immediate...
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Depression, Suicide, Discrimination and Parity
In the immediate aftermath of the suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain Gov. Cuomo issued a press release about new funding to address the rising rate of suicide. He stated: “Two high-profile suicides this week put mental illness front and center, but while those names were the ones in...
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Why Integrated Care for Co-Occurring Disorders Is So Important
Providing integrated treatment for people with co-occurring behavioral and physical health disorders has become a central goal of mental health policy reform. Why? In part the answer is that the failure to provide effective integrated care drives up the cost of care. But the answer also is that...
