i Seasons Greetings
From SAVE!
Wishing you the very best this holiday season.
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It is hope...
that keeps me working
by Teri Popp
I am an advocate for suicide awareness and prevention. My husband, Bill Popp, and I have worked for many years to help educate the general public about the signs of an impending suicide, plus ensure that support is offered to survivors of suicide. Eighteen years ago, I was diagnosed with a major depressive episode. Interestingly, I did not have a trigger for this episode. In some ways, that made my diagnosis easier.
More...
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Walkin' and Talkin': One Principal's Caring Is Breaking Down Walls of Silence
by Dr. Dan Reidenberg, SAVE Executive Director
Think back to high school and try to remember your principal. What was his/her name? What do you remember most about him/her? Did you ever have the chance to talk with this person (not about something that you were in trouble for)? I'm guessing most of us don't even recall our high school principal, let alone anything significant about them and what they
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SAVE Partners with "The Real Warriors Campaign" for Veterans
 SAVE is proud to be a new partner of the Real Warriors Campaign. The Real Warriors Campaign provides veterans and military families experiencing the invisible wounds of war with practical tools, tips and resources to facilitate successful reintegration and recovery. The Real Warriors Campaign website, www.realwarriors.net, features articles, tools and information to help service members, veterans and family members coping with invisible wounds.
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Mark your calendar:
SAVE Events
Scheduled for 2012:
Annual Suicide
Awareness Memorial:
May 5, 2012
SAVE Fashion Show:
June 1, 2012
Emotions In Motion 5K Run/Walk:
August 11, 2012
Motorcycle Ride to SAVE Lives:
August 18, 2012
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Blood Tests for Diagnosis of Schizophrenia and Depression?
Newly developed blood tests for schizophrenia and for depression have attracted increased attention at recent major scientific meetings. At this year's American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Hawaii, Professor Sabine Bahn, MD, PhD, MRCPsych, described her 15-year search for answers. For Bahn, the search for biomarkers in psychiatric disorders is a personal pursuit. Her father had bipolar disorder.
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New Book Focuses on Suicide Grief Support
Grief after Suicide: Understanding the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors, is a new book featuring in-depth coverage of all aspects of suicide grief support. According to the editors, the book's "goals are to establish not only what is known about suicide survivors and postvention efforts to assist them, but also to draw attention to vital information that is not known but would help us to better understand and assist survivors of suicide.
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Contribution Corner:
"Battle Scars"
By Sidney Townes,
Miss Black Minnesota Talented Teen
Battle scars is what I call them.
SIB, Self Injurious behavior is what they call them.
These old cuts on my wrists do not show who I am.
Or where I am today.
Rather they show who I've been,
And where I used to be.
People might think they would show shame.
In my eyes, they show strength.
They show that I was in a rough place, a dark hole. They show that I was once lost but now I'm found.
Life is brighter now.
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SAVE Integral to Development of National Recommendations For Media Coverage of Suicide
SAVE, in unison with the CDC, other national suicide prevention organizations, and top media organizations, contributed to the development of new Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide and a
corresponding website  for journalists all over the world to use. Research has shown that safe and accurate reporting of suicide reduces risk of suicide contagion and helps encourage help-seeking behavior. The Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide also apply to online content including citizen-generated media coverage, social media sites, blogs and online content from traditional media organization's websites. In fact, following the recommendations for online content is just as important since online articles, blogs, photos and videos can be instantly shared with millions of people around the world. And we know from research that extensive media coverage of a suicide increases risk for contagion.
To view the Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide or to learn more, go to www.ReportingOnSuicide.org
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SAVE Annual Campaign: You Can Help Prevent Suicide When You Work Together With Others
 In 2011, SAVE reached hundreds of thousands of people with our programs of suicide prevention education and awareness. Beyond that, SAVE worked to advance research into the underlying causes of suicide, advocated for better, more responsive treatment systems for mental illness, and reached out nationally in unprecedented ways to help people bereaved by suicide. We have developed best-practice materials that are being used all around the world, and we are still helping any individual family, school, or community in need.
SAVE needs your help now so that we can continue the positive impact we have had on people's lives and keep spreading the seeds of hope in 2012, and well into the future. Your contributions will work together with other families' contributions, and collectively you will be preventing the loss of more sons and daughters, of more mothers and fathers, and of more spouses, friends and co-workers. SAVE prevents suicide. YOU can too.
To contribute to our ongoing suicide prevention and bereavement programs, please click here.
To those who have already contributed to this year's campaign, thank you for your support!
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Online Resources Launched for Bereavement Caregivers
By Franklin Cook, SAVE Director of Survivor and Bereavement Programs
As part of SAVE's ongoing commitment to building a sense a community among those who provide assistance to people bereaved by suicide, we have launched two new online resources for suicide bereavement caregivers, designed to help them support survivors of suicide loss in coping with their grief:
Suicide Grief: News & Comment at www.save.org/caregivers is a blog featuring the latest news about topics and resources related to caring for people bereaved by suicide.
The Suicide Bereavement Support Group Database at www.save.org/supportgroups-us organizes information about suicide bereavement support groups in the United States into a database that is searchable using keywords.
Both the blog and the database are free public services being provided by SAVE for use by survivors, communities, and caregivers across the country. More...
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SAVE Honered by White House as "Champions of Change"
 On Thursday, August 25, 2011, SAVE was honored at the White House as one of the "Champions of Change" for its work in the area of suicide prevention. SAVE Executive Director Dr. Dan Reidenberg and Board President Joe Stackhouse accepted the honor on SAVE's behalf following a roundtable discussion with White House policy officials and other leading suicide prevention innovators. In selecting SAVE as a Champion of Change, the administration described it as an organization "empowering and inspiring others in their communities" and cited "the work and passion of your organization in the area of suicide prevention."
For complete information, click here.
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SAVE Expands Fundraising Events Across the Nation In 2011, SAVE's events program grew larger than ever, including record number of participants and expansion into three new states; Massachusetts, New York, and South Dakota. SAVE's expansion of national events started with the "Walk for Another Path: A Walk for Hope" held in Quincy, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, which was held on Saturday, July 23. This SAVE supported event was organized by Kathleen Ferguson and Joan O'Mahoney, who lost their sister/mother to suicide in January. "We put together the fundraiser to increase awareness about suicide and help others who suffer from depression" said Ferguson, "We called our walk 'Another Path' it's a walk for hope so that people know there is another path, don't take your life, take the other path. Seek help." More... |
Suicide Protection Across Generations Suicide ranks as the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States. We have lost loved ones across the generations. Older Americans are disproportionately likely to die by suicide. Although they comprise only 12 percent of the U.S. population, people age 65 and older accounted for 16 percent of suicide deaths in 2004. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students and the third leading cause of death in adolescents. Every day 14 teens take their own lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the second year in a row, middle-aged adults have the highest suicide rate in the country, surpassing even older Americans. More... |
SAVE Welcomes Two New Staff Members Dave Clausen joined SAVE as Director of Marketing and Communications in June of 2011. Dave has spent the last 9 years operating his own graphic design agency. Prior to that he worked at the Minneapolis StarTribune for 9 years. Dave is a graduate of South Dakota State University, where he majored in Journalism and minored in Psychology. Dave's connection to SAVE goes all the way back to 1994, when he started serving as a volunteer, a communications committee member, and a designer on several SAVE projects. Dave considers his new position at SAVE to be the ideal job for him, since he gets to utilize both his writing and design skills, all while working for a cause that is very important to him. Jessica Donner joined SAVE in October, 2011 as an administrative assistant. Jessica has adjusted quickly to the hectic pace, and enjoys the work very much. "It's an honor working for an organization where I know what I am doing is making a difference in people's lives." She believes in the mission of SAVE and is excited for her future with the organization. Jessica is a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota where she studied journalism and business communications. She recently made the transition from corporate business and is very happy about her decision to work for a smaller organization. |
A Simple Cup of Tea: One Man's Method of Outreach Has Saved Hundreds Outside of Sidney, Australia, is a cliff that has become notorious for suicides. As many as 50 jump to their deaths each year at "The Gap," as it is known. What is interesting about The Gap, however, is not the number of jumpers, but rather the number of people who have gone to The Gap intending to jump but did not. You see, Don Ritchie lives across from The Gap and he has personally saved more than 400 would-be jumpers. His approach: Offer them a cup of tea.. More... |
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