Suicide prevention: Push back the darkness, let in the light

“No one is sure why Alaska’s suicide rate has risen for four straight years and is the nation’s highest. Alaska can round up the usual suspects — alcohol and drug abuse, hopelessness, isolation, poverty, wretched family lives, lack of opportunity, sexual abuse, biological factors, culture, history, racism — but we still won’t have all the answers. We do have some answers, however. And as Susan Soule, mental health consultant and former director of the state’s suicide prevention program, points out, we know the important questions.”

“Soule quoted the late Edwin Schneidman, the father of suicide prevention, who said the work boiled down to two questions:

‘Where do you hurt? How may I help you?’ ”

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News