A Mother's Vision for Suicide Prevention Walk 

As I sat in her office at the SC Department of Social Services one September afternoon Helen Pridgen carefully removed a paper taped to the wall by her computer where only she could see. On it were two pictures of her son, the first was on the occasion of his college graduation and the second of a little boy posing next to a pumpkin on a fall day. This is her son Clay- whom she lost to suicide 10 years before when he was 25 years old.

Pridgen says that her son was diagnosed with major depression a year before his death and she believes that he found himself in an overwhelming situation and that he could not find a way out. Since that time, it has been her passion to help other families to prevent this tragedy from happening to them. She soon became involved with two national organizations, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and has been a true pioneer for South Carolina by bringing suicide prevention and awareness into the picture for this state.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is the leading national nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research, education and advocacy, and to reaching out to people with mental disorders and those impacted by suicide. In 2005, the AFSP contacted Pridgen about starting an Out of the Darkness walk in the Columbia area. In response, Pridgen brought a committee together of survivors of suicide and supporters of suicide prevention in Columbia. They held their first meeting at Trinity Cathedral. Over 20 people came to this first meeting and planned the First Annual Out of the Darkness Walk.

The 2005 Out of the Darkness Walk was a success and has become an annual tradition in Columbia. This year will be the Sixth Annual Out of the Darkness Walk in Columbia and the tradition has now begun in other cities such as Spartanburg, Hilton Head, and Charleston. The walk is a special event- drawing those who are survivors of suicide to walk in memory of a family member or friend who has completed suicide and also including those who support survivors of suicide and the suicide prevention movement. Pridgen says, "It is a community walk- it is for all of us."

Pridgen also continued to follow her passion and started a South Carolina chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention here in Columbia to support the continuation of the Out of the Darkness Walks and to bring the services of the AFSP to the people of South Carolina. She paid the rent for an office space for the new South Carolina chapter of the AFSP for many months. Now the chapter is busily involved in implementing many of the programs sponsored by the parent organization. Some of the activities include the launching of a school based program in partnership with the SC Department of Education entitled "More than Sad" for guidance and counseling professionals, planning the Survivors of Suicide Conferences on November 20, 2010 to be held in locations around the state and providing the Survivor of Suicide Loss Support Group Facilitator Training Programs for Survivor of Suicide Support Groups.

Pridgen says that the energy that she would put into loving her son today she now puts into her work for suicide prevention in the hope that she can save other families from the same experience. As she says, "I can't bring him back but we can continue this work."