September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

While not directly stated in our mission, suicide prevention is a major passion for us here at Mental Health America of Northeast Indiana. This is stating the obvious, but there’s a strong link between mental health and suicide prevention. Untreated mental health conditions, and even poor mental health in general, can cause an individual to think about hurting themselves or wanting to die by suicide.

Like mental health, suicide prevention is a topic that many people don’t know a lot about. And there are a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about suicide. The most common being, if you ask a person who is hurting if they are thinking about suicide, it will put the idea in their head. In reality, asking openly, directly, and warmly about suicide provides a much-needed opportunity for the individual to open up and share how they are feeling.

While we are passionate about suicide prevention, there are many more organizations in our community and across the nation who are more expert than we are. We wanted to take the opportunity to share some of those organizations with you as a resource to learn more about suicide prevention this month.

We hope you’ll take some time this month to explore these organizations and learn more about suicide prevention. You can save a life!

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline – Now easily reached by dialing 988, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is staffed by trained crisis counselors available to talk 24/7 with anyone experiencing a mental health or suicide crisis.

Stop Suicide Northeast Indiana – Stop Suicide is a coalition of like-minded organizations in Northeast Indiana working together to prevent suicide and support community members following a suicide death.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)  – AFSP works nationally, and through local chapters, to education about suicide prevention, advocate for public policy, and fund research to better understand suicide and how to prevent it.

Stop a Suicide Today – Stop a Suicide Today provides a free, anonymous suicide risk assessment as well as information on where to seek help.

QPR Institute – The QPR Institute provides an evidence-based training for anyone interested in learning how to ask someone if they are thinking about suicide, persuade them to get help, and then refer them to resources.