Know the Signs – Suicide Awareness and Prevention Week

In honor of National Suicide Prevention Week, Southwest Behavioral Services at Southwest Health is running a week-long campaign to inform and engage our communities in conversation about the warning signs and risk factors of suicide.  The campaign is titled: “Know the Signs.”

Over 41,000 people die by suicide each year in the United States.  Knowing the signs and risk factors of suicidal ideation could help you save a life.  The purpose of this campaign is to empower others to be able to recognize the warning signs of suicide and to intervene in situations where a friend or family member is at risk.

The awareness-raising campaign includes a physical display of yard signs, which can be seen outside of The Platteville Clinic Tuesday through Friday this week. Each sign illustrates one of the warning signs or risk factors of suicide.  These have been broken down into 6 major categories: talk, mood, behavior, health, history, and environment.

Our mental health professionals at Southwest Behavioral Services will also be doing a mini-blog series providing educational information on identifying the warning signs and risk factors of suicide.

On Wednesday, September 13th, Southwest Health is partnering with UW-Platteville to provide a second display of signs on UW-Platteville’s campus.  The signs will be placed within UW-Platteville’s display of 1,100 flags in the ground of the West Lawn (by the Student Center) to represent the 1,100 college students who die by suicide each year.

Finally, stay tuned for a guest blog post by Carrie Cullen, a local family survivor of suicide.  Carrie’s family puts on BENS Hope, the suicide awareness and prevention walk/run on September 23^rd.