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You Good evening. I'm Governor Bill Richards and for the next hour you will learn about the issue of youth suicide through a documentary that was produced here in New Mexico through the Children, Youth and Families Department, the Department of Health, the Human Services Department, and the Public Education Department. The purpose of this project is to open discussion about this devastating almost epidemic occurrence so everyone can identify the early warning sides of suicide in young people and help those who need support. Discussion of suicide,

depression, and mental health issues in general is not easy or simple. However, if we are to improve the lives of our youth, we must be willing to openly discuss these issues that confront New Mexico families. After the documentary, we will have a half-hour program that will address prevention issues for parents, schools, and communities. Thank you for taking the time to help save the lives of our sons, daughters, friends, and students. With your help, we hope to create a new awareness and understanding of youth suicide and depression and give communities throughout the state tools that will enable them to intervene and help prevent this terrible tragedy. To the very loving young girl? Oh, he had a great personality, he had a great sense of humor. We always made trouble together. That was us. We spent endless hours talking. He

used to help me with everything including cooking and he wanted to be a professional chef. We were both on the swim team. She was funny, she was incredibly smart. I lost my brother. There's Michelle Kerr, I lost my daughter due to suicide back in 2001. My son, Jason lost his best friend, Michael. I lost my sister. I lost my son. She was 17. 15. He was 13 years old. She was two weeks from turning 18, and she was two months from graduating from high school. Michael hung himself in the garage.

Suicide affects every ethnic group. It affects every economic group. It's not just someone else's child. It's not that the problem is over there. I think some people, especially adults, think that, oh, like A happened and then B happened and then C happened and that's why they got to D, like depression. But maybe you guys can talk about how it happened or how it does happen for yourself or for other young people. When you get depressed, you feel like you don't want to do anything, you don't want to be around anybody, you want to be by yourself. When someone tries to cheer you up, you just get away from me, you know? Because the depression, it really is like horrible. And you just feel like you want to be isolated and not be around anybody. I hate it. Because you just like, you can't be

happy, you can't do fun things. You cry all the time over and up being. Did I want to hurt myself since I've been 13? Because like when I was 13, I wanted a tickle, a full bottle of aspirin. Because I wanted to die and I wanted to be alive and I wanted to be here. So I was like this because I thought it was on my fault and that it was nobody else's fault but mine. That I had caused everything to happen. I just, in a bad mood all day and then somebody sets me off. I just get angry and frustrated. I just need to start doing something. So instead of looking for something, I start cutting my arms. Physical pain feels a lot better than emotional pain. So I would hurt myself constantly. During the worst part of everything I couldn't sleep. I know I'm not fun when I'm depressed because you know they're just like look at her. She

doesn't want to talk. She doesn't want to play around or any things. So you have people really didn't want to be around me. I really didn't have any friends until about seventh grade. I was a loner most of the time. The most recent episode I had was when I was in school I was just really angry and so I got a roller. It was broken one and I just started cutting on myself and it felt a lot better than I'm angry at this person. So yeah I just thought a lot better after I was done. I had the knife and I just said why anything to lay for. So I got the knife. I actually started at the start of eighth grade here. I started drinking. I would take my alcohol to school with me. I would drink during before after

whenever I could because some can be concealed as water even though they're not. I started like cutting myself at 12 years old. I just didn't want to live anymore. Because I thought my life was useless. When I was in class I really couldn't concentrate. Before I used to eat a lot a lot I would gain weight a lot but lately I've been medialized about 20 pounds. I would act as if nothing was going on as if life was just the same as anybody else's. As if I was just walking through life and just doing everything I needed to and even though it wasn't I would act like nothing was happening and everything was cool. If I got too much sleep I was tired. If I got enough sleep I was tired. If I didn't get enough sleep I was tired. I tried to overdose on pills for scripture pills like there's like 30 of them and then like I didn't tell

anybody so they wouldn't take me in the emergency room. It just was like a spur of a moment. Anxiety is often a critical factor that goes unrecognized where someone has become so anxious sometimes the whole idea of ending their life is the only way to free them from the great deal of panic and anxiety and depression that that a young person might feel. Get your work done to pass school to get into college. Pressure to lose weight. Breaking up with someone. Sometimes I'd be crazy. So what you're saying it's typically not just one thing but it's a combination of all of the things building up. Yeah it's different varieties of things. Yeah it could be anything. It could be from having a boyfriend breaking up or being true love or people at home, pressuring people. I had a friend that called me on the phone and he started like dissecting weird. I started to

give his stuff away and like talking about death a lot and just writing weird poems and I was like what the heck's going on and finally he came out and he told me over the phone he was crying and he told me that who's suicidal. Maybe they're upset about something so they start drinking and I drink jugs. You want to go talk to him about it and it's hard but it's something that you need to do because they're hurting and you need to talk to him and get them help. If a student comes up to you and you're a fellow peer and they say you know I've been thinking about committing suicide. You're my best friend I know that that I can trust you to tell you. I always point out and tell them you say I can't keep that secret. I have to tell someone I care enough about you that what would it say if I didn't tell anyone that I don't care about you. She had friends who knew and they didn't tell anyone. Another girl had a pact with her to do 24

hours after my sister Denise and she got help. Someone found out she got help. I think society has changed where students expectations are really high. I think parental expectations are really high of the students and I think the activity level of kids has gone out of control. And a lot of times it's your students that are really high achievers that end up you know having all these expectations thrust on them and they don't you know they don't know how to handle it. Especially if something does go wrong in life. Sometimes it'll be very high-functioning. Teen is making good grades and is doing well and say sports or is very popular. They look like they're doing better than they are. Well we're facing a public health crisis. When we look at what are the issues that are really causing the death of our teens in America basically its

accidents, homicides and suicides. We now have almost as many teens in our country dying from suicide as the fourth through the tenth leading causes of death combined. As a young child about the age of four you start to understand a little bit about death and that when someone dies they're gone in a more permanent way. And my guess is that sometime during adolescence you really start to understand that you know if you wanted to die you could kill yourself and that people do that and that is something that happens. And adolescence is a very emotionally lay-by-all time. I lost my best friend Michael Rahol when we were just little kids. If the success happens it's all about me and if the failure happens it's all

about me. If the divorce happens I must have done something wrong or if I'd been different and a lot of egocentric thinking I can just drive them to that place where you know I'm gonna do something about it. It will be better if I do something about it and I can get down that train track of the thing I'm gonna do about it is I'm gonna take myself out of the situation permanently and everybody I feel better. They haven't had experience dealing with difficult situations and finding that they can work their way through difficult situations and be okay at the other end. It happened when I didn't really think life was worth anything so I really had this feeling inside me of I don't belong. When people start to get into these kind of difficulties they start to pull back and they sever the support that they have from other folks and

when you do that that's when that intensifies the sense of hopelessness. I blame myself and every time it happened I'd say well I can't live life with this in my head anymore I can't do this anymore I need to die this isn't worth it and how am I gonna do it. It came to the point where that was the only thing I'd ever think about I could look in a room look around in a room and really just look at almost anything and say well this is how I can commit suicide with that. That's where it went up to where you just look at almost anything and just say well that's how I can die like that this is how I can do it and that's what I can use and this is how I can use it and that's how it came up to it never came up to thinking of what the consequences could be it always came up to I'm gonna die and this is how I'm gonna die came up to the point where I started making plans and started saying well this is the time I'm gonna do it I'm gonna die at exactly this time this day and I'm gonna be gone and nobody's gonna care it got to the part where I guess I was in the treatment center and just

like I said I could find anything and I guess one day I don't know exactly I got pissed and mad punching walls going out in a rage but then I actually thought I was calm and I always had something in my bathroom that I knew of that could be used for something I guess I had a million things in there that I had bobby pins that I had I don't know sharpened outside I mean I had so many things in there and when I went in there I mean that's what I had in mind you know if one thing goes dull then I can use the next it came to the point where yeah I cut myself I bled a lot what happened at that moment was more like looking at something that I'm glad I had in the bathroom I had pictures of my brothers my family in the bathroom just hanging up and I looked up and looked

down and I just finally said oh my god I don't want to die I do got somebody that cares I had the door closed they noticed I guess that I had been in there for quite a while I kind of faded out and I really couldn't hear I couldn't hear them and they finally had to open the door I guess and that's when they caught me and I guess they had a column nurse and they had to do things and you got pretty far in a word the really most important thing that we have to do if we want to try to prevent suicide is make connection we really have to make connection with teenagers stuff has been piling up seems to me like little things little events over

years so maybe it's not so shocking that you guys got so down you got to that center like you said you got to the center of it's just like I've only been on the planet 15 years or 14 years or 16 years and this is really about as far as I'm gonna go so what's the what's the thing that if you guys could talk about that that kept you from I mean really like you get to the center and if you're there alone in that moment what brings you back well I don't know most of my friends just don't want to be around me because I'm depressive so I'll write and it just I can put out my feelings onto paper and I don't have to act out on my feelings so that that's what makes me feel better mostly wow is anybody else in here a writer I will serve a child you are you do poetry we're gonna come back to you I like to I always read in my journal to just

get out everything that I'm feeling and I like to color and listen to music and a lot of stuff but I mostly talk to my friends about how I'm feeling about the people I can really really trust one of the reasons why I did stop cutting myself and doing all that is because of animal stocks because I want to become a vet and everything so I'm trying to get my GED and stuff so I can't be with animals because throughout the years that seems like the only thing that's there for me is dogs oh wow they're there when you need them the most not like some people they said they'll be there for you and everything next thing you know when you do need them they say they're busy doing something else and they can't come to you but dogs they're never too busy to come to you and help you out and be there for you and I have to say my family I almost did die in a hospital boy I mean just I just slipped up and I pictured my family all over

and that's kind of when I stopped and I called out my brother and I told him I want to die but he threw something in my head that to this day I still have and that was why do you want to go you're our only sister in life for us would never be the same without you and he said things can be rough yes but you need to find a way out so it's stuck in my head and it still does nowadays even if sometimes I still go back to think you know I want to do that I think of my family first but my brother's words and I called out my brother and I told him I want to die so I just decided to call you because I cut myself and I got scared and I thought I should call someone okay okay what I want you to do is to

look around the area and see if there is a sheet or blanket or towel or something that you can apply pressure to that cut can you do that right now yeah I'm glad you've decided to call um is there anyone with you anybody that can help you around no no my parents that work okay do you still have the item in which you cut yourself with near you yeah can you can you put that aside please and now I'm really freaked out and I just wanted to call someone and talk to them so I just called you okay I am a little bit scared for you right now can you tell me exactly where you cut yourself and my arm on your arm like on your wrist okay very good you guys let me interrupt you you guys are doing great and I

think it's important to note how everybody has a different response to this kind of call and it's good to know that there's no one perfect one that we're all gonna have a different response and there's lots of different ways that you can help I think that for someone who may have a friend that they are concerned about or that they think maybe going through something rough that the most important thing is to just let them know that you're available and they can talk and they can say whatever they want to say and then you think gosh is this person thinking about suicide you really just have to ask them and that's of course very scary for all of us to do because you know a lot a lot of us still have that little voice in our head that says maybe they haven't thought about it you're gonna say it and make it a good idea what's not true if they are suicidal it's usually a big relief like wow somebody has heard me somebody's noticed and they know how bad it is and they care enough to ask me so usually they'll tell you and of course then a lot of people say oh but you can't tell

anyone don't tell my mom don't tell my teacher don't tell my husband my doctor whoever and you know it's not a secret you can keep and I think that I always tell people you know it's better to have a mad friend than a dead friend when people are suicidal it's usually not so much that they want to be dead it's just that this is the best solution that they can come up with at the moment because when you're at that low point when you're so hopeless you just can't think clearly you just can't find solutions that you might find normally so they're based upon impulse and what that means is that if there's lethal means available that adolescents will will take that lethal means and a successful suicide will occur so controlling access to firearms controlling access to lethal kinds of means controlling an adolescents substance abuse all are the kind of things that that help control that impulsivity and therefore reduce

suicide I am always puzzled whenever I go out and I see how many people don't know that youth suicide is a huge problem in the United States and in New Mexico it's the second leading cause of death for young people 15 to 24 years of age and the age-range 10 to 14 is increasing very quickly awareness reducing the stigma around asking for help reducing the stigma around the whole idea that I don't want anyone to know that I suffer from depression or I don't want anyone to know that my family has a problem when you see a parent who's lost a child to suicide it is probably the most devastating painful day for a child to die and the feelings of the family and school teachers

friends that are left are feelings of guilt and anger and confusion that are unfathomable there is denial no one wants to think that their child may be having thoughts of hurting themselves or killing themselves so we do have to break through that but I think that for a lot of parents there are some gut feelings that have to do with is my child okay is my child behaving differently than he or she did ten months before we tell parents you need to trust your instincts we find that in retrospect 90% of children that that die by suicide have a mental health

issue that may or may not have been recognized depression it's a disease and I think that that's becoming more common knowledge but it disables people it really it paralyzes them you can't decide to cheer up you can't take action to make yourself better you have to have somebody help you out of that hole what people need to understand is that these illnesses are true illnesses just like any other physical illness and you need to get the support that you need to understand it you need to be able to find the service that that you need even when it's difficult you need to find what's gonna work for you you can't ignore it it won't go away even though one in five children may have a mental health problem 70% of those even identified is having a mental health problem are unable to access mental health care in our country which is you know a huge huge problem where do you go get help and that's why it's so

important to get those bonds with kids in schools and where they are are having contact with with teachers and other staff members the coach the bus driver the crossing guard wherever and one of the things that's happening is it's not just teenagers we have the 10 to 14 age group that's like tripled in the last couple decades so when I talk to teenagers about watching out for each other and taking care of themselves I say watch out for your little brothers and sisters too because it's happening very young children commit suicide in this day and age 9 and 10 year olds kill themselves and they kill themselves using firearms that are available in the house they kill themselves by trying to strangle themselves they kill themselves by hanging themselves and if you are concerned that your child seems to be acting differently is moody has had a recent terribly discouraging blow either at school or with peers if your

child seems to have a predisposition to possibly some other kind of mental health problem because of something in your family don't let it slide because all you really need to do is go to one 15 year olds funeral and it's like how did this happen this is somebody's baby and a lot of our kids are going through so pretty hassling times so they need us they need us mostly acting I want to be a veterinarian and stuff like that is my school and probably go to college I like best knowing different people meeting different people having friends finally after being a loner for such a very long time going to school going to college so just watch you know just watch your kids closely they mean the world that's all on your screen right

now are the signs of depression and suicide recognizing them is one of the first steps to preventing someone from hurting themselves good evening I'm Yolanda Nava and we're going to conduct a half hour discussion on the prevention of youth suicide we want you to stay with us to learn how you can help save lives good evening I'm Cynthia Sierra if you are needing help or need to talk to someone right now about yourself or a friend's depression or if you have questions on where to go or how to access help please call 2773013 this is the Agora Crisis Center at the University of New Mexico it's a free service that's anonymous and there are people who can help you and guide you to the right resources right now if you're outside of the Albuquerque area you can call 1-800 suicide that's 1-800-784-2433 I'm Doug Fernandez tonight we will talk about the issue of youth suicide prevention in three segments we'll

talk to experts about the ways prevention is being addressed and can be addressed through parents within our schools and finally how the entire community needs to work together on this issue now because this is about youth suicide we have a group of teenagers in our studio who will be talking about the youth perspective this is a huge and critical problem for all of us here in New Mexico so please take this next half-hour to join us as we explore ways to prevent youth suicide In a word the really most important thing that we have to do if we want to try to prevent suicide is make connection we really have to make connection with teenagers and for parents that can sometimes be a huge challenge who's been now is Dr. David Sharer a psychologist who teaches at UNM first of all doctor give me the big picture what do we need to be aware of yes Doug we estimate that somewhere between one third and one half of

adolescence contemplate suicide at some time during their teenage years how do we differentiate differentiate kids just being kids or teens being kids is a lot of up and downs if you will in those years how do we know when there's a real problem or they're just goofing off yeah it's pretty normal for teenagers to have periods of moodiness or to go through a difficult stretch it's a different issue though when when adolescents have had depression for for several weeks or several months and when they're saying things like I don't want to live any more or I wish I were dead that quantity and that quality of depression are really risk signs of suicide can you offer some suggestions on how to break through to get through to the kids and also on the other end of the spectrum how not to try to break through what might be a mistake yeah I think there's a couple things one thing is that parents really have to create opportunities to talk with their kids about serious things about God about the war about the election about the death penalty things like that so that teenagers and

parents have experience talking with one another about serious things I'm sure this is something you might have heard before it can't happen to me it won't happen in our family that's a misnomer obviously not true it happens to lots of people and as the as the video showed and and people stated it happens across economic statuses and across ethnicities all right doctor thank you very much we now have some ideas on what parents can do but what about the teenagers will these ideas work can they help each other and help their parents make a connection that they need to do you'll on it right now is with some teenagers from New Mexico you'll want to well thanks Doug I do have three teens that are here with us this evening so if you'd step up and give us your name I'm crystal fully of Santa Fe high school crystal tell me why is it that some teens aren't able to talk to their parents I think that they feel like there's no connection they don't know how they feel or they'll just like rush them off to hospital or something like that what suggestions would you give to parents to

make it easier for them to have these conversations with their children just to always talk to them about it like talk to them about all the issues like he was saying and just just keep on talking to them great thank you I'm gonna stand up here and give me your name I'm Joshua Shelvin from Santa Fe high school Joshua how can how can teens talk to their peers about their depression about their feelings and fears well I just think that they should be honest and open and you know just come out and say that say I'm feeling bad today you know to their friends and you know if if they're you know if they have good friends you know then the friend will sit and listen and you know help them do their problem how about response how how should somebody respond if a friend comes up to you and says I'm thinking about killing myself well the person should talk to the person and definitely get help especially if it's you know urgent and the person is thinking about doing it soon or right away the person should

definitely listen and comfort the person stay with them great you want to stand up here and tell me why is it so hard to deal with mental health issues what is there a shame attached to it what's the problem I'm Jennifer's on from Santa Fe high school and I think it's just the problem with all of the suicide is they're scared that someone will just bring them up about talk give them like the sexual talk like well parents do that and just give them actually like a death talk and they're scared about what they'll be like okay very good thank you very much thank you all for sharing with us and let's go back now to Doug this television special is being produced by K-Anime and K-O-A-T in conjunction with the PBS affiliates in Portalis K-E-N-W and K-R-W-G in Las Cruces now Gary Worth from K-R-W-G takes us to the adolescent and young adult clinic in Las Cruces where parents can reach out to their teens just another

health clinic not quite I just need you to fill out this form and then when you're done go ahead and bring it back up to the front desk okay all right this is a place especially designed for adolescents and their parents a place to bring their health concerns and to find out if a young person has problems that mom and dad don't know about frequently adolescents have magical thinking about things or if they're thinking about suicide they may not go to their parent because they they don't want to hurt their parents doctor Lynette Summers set up this adolescent clinic based on research she did for her doctoral degree about what makes teens talk she insists that each person who works here understands how young people think there's no appointments no wrong doors and no matter how simple the health concern every patient takes a state-designed screening test and a second computerized test if necessary in the last three months and then discuss the responses with a doctor what I'm going to try to do here is run through this with you the young patient knows

that everything is confidential except for concerns about suicide and I'm gonna ask your mom to step outside if that's all right with both of you it's important for the parent to step out for the child to open up I think they experience that it's always a freeing in the sense that they can talk about the things that are bothering him but mom is just outside the door knowing she will not be left out of the process there may not have been much of a dialogue between the parent of the child or between the child of the parent and we actually are starting that dialogue she felt guilty she cleaned herself Davina Grihalva and her mom Rosie got help here after Davina's close friend committed suicide and at first I was a little upset with my mother but after Lynette helped me and I spoke to a couple other people they helped me I have to thank them. Part of our job as health care professionals is to help the parents see the context of the the young person's depression the key says

summers is getting kids to open up about their problems first to the doctor then to the parents. They want to tell given the opportunity which is comforting news for anxious parents who might otherwise have no way of knowing what's going on inside their child's head and we also have in the studio tonight parents who have been very personally affected by this tragedy if you would sir please stand up what advice would you have for parents to say to their kids about this potential tragedy in their family because it can't happen to anyone I would just tell them Doug that it's one of the most painful things the most painful thing a parent can possibly go through to experience a death of their child. Do you want to give me your name? My name is Steve Roholt okay let me go to the next woman sitting to your your left man would you stand up if you'd like to give your name you can. My name is Monica my son Brian committed suicide nine years ago. How can what kind of advice would you have about us being able to differentiate kids being kids or teens being kids there's a lot of up and down

emotions if you will during those years what advice would you have? My advice would be to trust your gut instinct I think as parents we do have that there's a lot of advice out there for parents a lot of material to read but I think the bottom line is you know your child and you know when their behavior starts to change to a point where it's dramatic our son went from being an A student to failing went from being happy to sad all the time crying things things that are real drastic in the behavior I think I I suspected there was something really wrong. Monica thank you and thank you too see let me come back here man would you like to stand up and give me your name if you'd like. My name is Sue Roholt. If parents are concerned about what may be happening in their family what advice would you have to talk to their kids or talk to somebody else to break through. I think continually talking to their child is the most important thing and just even asking them how they're feeling but also seeking help with with people outside of the family that have experience and and are in the field

and are there to help and I think that's what this program will do tonight make parents that have any kind of concern teachers or family members aware of where they can get help because sometimes these kids just don't want to open up and and say that they're having problems. Alright so thank you very much for your advice and your your words tonight you know parents today are more stressed than ever but the bottom line is there is nothing more important if there is any question in your mind that something is wrong with your child don't hesitate to ask for help and of course find help. And Doug one of the ways to get help is through the Agora Crisis Center at the University of New Mexico they are there free of charge anonymous and open to anyone the number is 2773013 there are people there right now to help you it can be used for a crisis or to help you find other resources if you do need a crisis line and you're outside the Albuquerque area please call 1-800-Suicide that's 1-800-7-8-4-24-33 We need to train all the adults in the schools to know the warning signs and

what to do when they see them and how to approach kids because adults are really scared of this topic as well as kids and if a kid comes to a teacher the teacher needs to know what to do and know what to say certainly school is the place where teenagers spend the most amount of time and so adults in schools can be the first people a young person may turn to joining me now is Dr. Stephen Adlesheim who is a child psychologist and also heads up the New Mexico School Mental Health program thank you for joining us today tell us about what schools are currently doing to deal with mental health problems well right now we're starting to see schools get more involved in looking at this issue in a larger way we're seeing schools develop more training programs both for youth and for teachers we're seeing screening programs begin to take shape in schools we're also seeing more early intervention programs a

greater role for school mental health professionals to be working with youth as well as linkage to community mental health providers to be able to provide additional support for our children students in an ideal situation what needs to happen in the schools to really confront this issue well you know the the truth is more needs to be done schools are often very good at recognizing youth with acting out problems but maybe not as good as recognizing children who are quiet with drawn avoidant and we need to do a better job in fact you know one out of seven of our high school youth in New Mexico said they've tried to kill themselves in the previous year we need to be looking at expanded roles for screening in our schools we need to be sure that that training is happening children are more likely to tell their friends about you know their suicide risk in their depression than anyone else and we need to be sure that that information is available to them that a plan is in place that safe schools plans incorporate information about what to do if a youth is suicidal and then also we just need to provide more support for those children who might be at

risk those who might try to kill themselves before who are depressed are gay and yet lesbian youth that have higher rates of suicide as well thank you so much for joining us now let's go to Cynthia all right thank you Yolanda and I'm here with a group of teenagers to talk about this horrible problem tell me what your name is and who you're with my name is Jenny list and I currently attend Valley High School all right Jenny let's talk about the resources at Valley High School first off is there a health center there at Valley High School where you can go to to talk to somebody about these problems and if so what is the perception of it do your buddies think it's a it's a place where they can turn to um well they're currently as a health center as well as counselors that many people at my school can talk to however many people don't really go to them because they think that oh it's not the cool thing to do or it's not the right thing and it's just it's not good all right thank you Jenny let me move on we're talking about what the cool thing to do and what the cool thing is not to do what is your name my name's are you and I go to Valley as well why isn't it a cool thing to go to a health center if you feel like

you you want to commit suicide where do you turn to all you turn would generally turn to your friends and try to turn to your parents but not everyone has an open relationship with their parents and the reason why it might not be a cool thing to do for most people is because they're they don't want to be judged or they're afraid of what could happen like they might be submitted to impatient or they might be ignored entirely all right they don't want to be judged thank you or they don't want to be ignored entirely excuse me I want to move over here because I want to talk to somebody who has tried to take his life in the past your name and who you're with Patricia Pacheco and I'm here with Poakeye High School but ratio why did you want to take your life and who did you feel you could turn to at the time I am a year and a half spinal cord injury patient and I had an accident broke my back which had led me to have thoughts of killing myself but I eventually didn't end up doing it because I had gone and helped frame a school psychologist

which is Jane Dickinson so Jane Dickinson you can attribute her to helping save your life yes what does she do to help you she actually talked me out of committing suicide and led me to more people that I can talk to about it what is your advice to anyone watching tonight who's contemplating taking their own life any teenager you've been there while I gotta say is just don't take your life there's a lot of people out there that care for you and if you do think about it go out and talk to people that care about you and if you don't find anybody that does care about you there's people all around you that are willing to listen and help absolutely but they so you're very brave and we're glad you're with us here today and speaking of help one of the ways schools are taken a proactive approach to helping our youth is through a teen screen program that helps identify students who may need support like Bethesio with help from our friends at K E N W take a look at how the program is working in

the Levington School District to help save lives just a few miles from the Texas border among the oil fields and the ranches a high tech battle is raging to save teenagers lives schools in Levington are using a computer program called teen screen to detect mental health problems it asks personal questions and warned school officials if children are in danger you have kids who something's going on their behavior is just not right and they do this program and then based on their answers and their responses you have this conversation with these children and the majority of them are just wanting to share what's going on Mary Eileen McGraw administers the test which was created by Columbia University after getting results from the screening community mental health workers make sure students who need help get it they agree to see our child if the child is suicidal they will see them immediately otherwise it's within 24 hours that they will assess our children and visit with them McGraw says it's important that schools in small towns reach out to children

a lot of communities are so world that they only get into town through the schools and the school is kind of where the kids are at and she firmly believes teen screen is making a difference in Levington I really feel like it's been a great success I think we have caught children who are hurting and need help and that the majority of these students are kids who have been able to get that help either through the schools or through the local mental health we have with us tonight several experts and educators who teach health classes that specifically cover suicide do you want to stand up and give me your name in your school I'm Chris Muir and I'm the school director with the public education department schools are overwhelmed academically socially with so many issues how are they coping with this whole situation schools do have a lot on their slates but schools are where kids are and they know that if they don't work with the issues that are barriers to kids learning depression thinking about killing themselves and kids aren't going to learn so and they're not

going to be with us so schools are very much interested in stepping up to the plate and doing what they can in order to to help with this issue you want to stand up and give me your name please Melinda Garcia Santa Fe high and what do you think are the critical issues here what can nurses do what can other health professionals and teachers do on campuses well what we tried to do in our classes just to raise awareness that that the issue is out there and try to teach some of the warning signs and to let kids know that we're there to help great thank you how about you let me have your name sir Ron Muir West Mason high school how do we get administrators to be responsive to the issue of mental health team depression suicide well probably one of the best ways is to let them know what we teach in our classrooms because sometimes they're so distant with all their duties during the day they don't know so I think if we let them know what we teach and and let them know that what we do is very important as a health educator I think that can go a long ways how about more

in-service training yeah that would help it depends on you know where you get it and where it's from I think a lot of the in-service is now or just for health educators I think a lot of it could go towards other teachers so they recognize it also great thank you so much well educators are mandated to teach very specific topics and skills it seems that they are also the people who have one of the best chances at helping our youth access to mental health services statewide I think we just have a lot of difficulty with psychiatrists at this point there aren't enough in the state for anybody whether they're rural or urban and because we live in a rural state and a state that does not have a huge number of trained mental health providers access to care is a huge issue with me today is Dr. Susie John from the Northern Navajo Medical Center thank you for being with us here today doctor first of all what is the situation in terms of availability to mental health care in rural areas

well Cynthia certainly a challenge with the health care delivery system that we have the health care providers are overworked there's a high turnover rate they burn out but there are also opportunities as well there's technology we can look at telemedicine for training for other types of use with the health care delivery system so you're talking about the resources that could help with this how do you get the resources we have to talk about the resource rich communities sharing with the more rural communities perhaps and that's where technology comes in again who in the community who specifically in the community has to raise up their hand and say I will take this issue forward I'm going to make sure that we don't just talk about this but that we get something done whether it's funded or what may it be to make sure that we help these children it has to be everyone has to be the families has to be the youth the parents has to be local leaders everyone has to be at the table any other

final solutions again I think we need to talk about having the more recent resource rich communities speaking with other folks all right thank you doctor for being here tonight you and as communities begin to get involved there are teams who may be able to get involved and take an active role in helping each other Doug is here with that so how can teens help their community understand the importance of this issue how can the teens get support from the community while I'm joined by some of these teams right here if you would stand up and give me your name please and tell me the school you're from I'm Ronald Gradjigas and I'm Miss Mesa high school how can your peers and how can parents and adults make a difference in this situation I think if parents and teens were to communicate with each other more they would be able to make solutions to their problems together and things would be a lot better you think it's not happening right now it needs to be improved yes all right thank you very much it's time to give you a name in your school please Charlie McLean West Mesa high is your community in West Mesa doing anything

about this problem right now do you know if anything that's happening or maybe something on the horizon I don't really know anything but I know that there are there are trying to get a place where where teens can go and get help and talk to like counselors and teachers and people but I'm I really haven't heard anything since then so if you don't know where to go right now what if something happened tomorrow what would you do I would probably go to one of the teachers I really know that I can trust all my friends and just make sure that I go to a person that I really do trust and make sure that they understand good advice thank you very much I'm gonna kind of lean over a little bit go ahead and stand up and give me your name in your school I'm Caleb Esquivel and I'm from West Mesa high what else do you think the community can do or the schools can do to try to stem the tide of teen suicide I think they could just like maybe be more get more closer to the students and not just like teach and just like never like get get a chance to talk to them and they should just be more close and like so that the students know that if they ever need someone to talk to that they'll be that their years are open and they're

always willing to listen very good advice from three teens right here thank you very much again you know Poakeh had a series of suicides last school year and has since taken specific steps to address the issue here's how the community is working together to help and support their youth nothing's worth taking your life over but something was for four students in Poakeh I've been associated with this district for over 20 years and in one year we've experienced more suicides than all those other years put together so together the Poakeh community developed a plan not to bury another teenager Isaac Trujillo for one was tired of seeing people his own age killed themselves no people are looking at it as like a drag to go to another person's funeral and really it shouldn't be happening in the first place the community's plan was simple a task force which included counselors like Eileen Schwetman times like this the academic stuff just kind of goes out the window and you know we'll worry about grades and scholarships when we get

some time and business owners like Ornesha De Peoli who kept their doors open for the kids I let them hang out as long as they want to if they have any problems if they have any questions they know they're free to ask free to explore free to be who they are here also church leaders like Jason Rios who knows teens should not be dealing with death really depressing you know for them to see their friends you know to lose their friends and I mean just to go through all this as a young person and also school superintendent Art Blaya who was trying to point teens in the right direction the young kids were looking at suicide as as the solution now a year after the four suicides perhaps Poakeh has a solution since the task force released its findings there have been no teenage suicides which is of course welcome news for Isaac people that you know you never expect and would die or you never expect them to take

their own life because nothing can ever be that bad and with us our community leaders from throughout New Mexico tonight if you'll state your name please and we're you're from I am Molly McCoy Brock I'm not in the directory to go our crisis center Molly you are okay at the agor crisis center through your eyes tell us how bad the problem is I think it's bad and I think it's been bad in New Mexico for a while I know that we deal on a pretty regular basis with people who are contemplating suicide or really before that people who are just feeling hopeless feeling alone feeling like they don't have anyone to turn to and so what we hope is that they'll call us then and you know get somebody to talk with them and sort through a problem before it comes to the point of thinking about suicide do you have the tools and the resources you need to defy teen suicide as a community we have some really good ones but we don't have enough I think that there's never enough resources for people that need help there's a lot of kids and people in general who are looking for counseling or

support services and there's some really great ones but there's not enough what happens usually is we give people a list of numbers to call and commonly they'll call us back in about an hour and say you know all these places are full they're closed they don't take my insurance so it's a problem how do we fix the problem I think the things like this program are our good step that creating awareness and letting people know that it is a problem and helping to reduce the stigma about asking for help I think that it's hard for people to ask for help when they need it and it's hard for some people to know how to respond when someone does ask them so I think that for all of us as a community to think about how we can help each other and what are some good ways to ask for help when we need it I think that's an important first step and what's the next step after that keep doing it amen to that thank you Molly and if your community needs some ideas or support to develop a community plan of action about youth suicide you can contact the New Mexico Department of Health Office of School

Health at 841-5881 or you can contact the New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition at 4019-382 and again if you need crisis intervention or individual guidance there are people ready right now to help please call 277-3013 this is a free service and of course it is anonymous now these people answering the calls can also guide you to the right resources now if you're outside the albuquerque metro area please call a number we hope you all know 1-800 suicide that's 1-800-784-2433 well for this project we've developed a number of tools for you to access we have specialized educators suicide information in the form of a videotape and curriculum guide just log on to K-N-M-E-T-V dot org the new mexico channel dot com or Christopher productions dot org to order those items and if you as a parent need some guidance and support there are some options your local new mexico pta is

distributing a tape specifically for parents and families to know the signs and to learn how to take action and peer-to-peer interaction is important since the teens are usually the first people to know there is a problem with their friends if a friend says they are suicidal it's a secret we cannot keep we have to find a way to get them help new mexico unfortunately has one of the highest rates of you suicide in the country but now you can help that you can know the signs and help save the lives of our young people amulandanaba as Cynthia is a gear and Doug Fernandez thank you for watching good night