September 4th – 10th was National Suicide Prevention Week. The AFSP trys to lead national environments and communities to understand and prevent suicide through research, education and advocacy, and to reach out to people with mental disorders and those impacted by suicide. What is the importance of Suicide Prevention Week? The importance is to help inspire more people to help by showing them how they can play a role in different communities to help save the lives of others.

In honor of NSPW, there are current organizations and events that can help including, in order to raise funds to provide suicide education in schools and workplaces and raise awareness of the prevalence of suicide, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention host a yearly walkathon. Every year since 2002, AFSP hosts its “Out of the Darkness Walk.” A bonus is with this it also increases advocacy for mental health and suicide prevention legisltion.

Turning into the status’s of Suicide in local high schools in the US. As of 2017 prevalence has increased since, reaching 17%. Additionally, in local schools including middle and highschools youth (ages 12-18), suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death. Further, each day in our nation there are an average of over 3,703 attempts by young people grades 9-12. As well as, 4 out of 5 individuals considering suicide give some sign of their intentions, either verbally or behaviorally, inclusive suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for our youth ages 10-24.

Now unleashing the most asked questions about suicide prevention week are the (who,where,what, & why.) Starting off strong with the where? Most suicides of teen incidents occur at home most (85%) die at the scene and never make it to the hospital.

Now presently, when questioning on why teens choose to commit suicide they often find that the reasoning is because of the pain and trama they find themselves with no perceivable way out. Normally those who choose to commit suicide have a plan ready in motion to cope with their emotions than wanting to get personalized help. Moving forward to the who. When finding which sex is more likely to commit suicide your answer will be MALES. It is shown and proven that as of 2015 almost ⅔ of the worldwide suicides repersenting 1.5% of all deaths are done by men. Lastly, it is shown that most suicides occur between midnight and 4AM. In April,May and June suicide rates tend to increase, they get 2-3 times higher in December when rates are lower.

Emily Evans, Portage High School’s licensed social worker, reminds the PHS population that talking about suicide awareness is important regardless of how difficult or uncomfortable is. Evans claims that some people’s belief about suicide are often incorrect. “Suicide is a symptom of a serious mental health disorder, and we need to talk about it honestly if we are ever going figure out how to address the growing mental health crisis in our country,” said Evans. Well expressed, “The bottom line is– if you suspect that someone is having suicidal thoughts, it doesn’t matter if they are your friend, your family, or your worst enemy. Tell someone you trust because it’s always better to be safe than sorry,” said Evans.

Portage High School’s Pow Wow staff recognizes the importance of suicide awareness. If you or a loved one needs additional information, please visit https://nspw.afsp.org/ to learn more about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.