Sophie’s Story

As told by her mother Julie McNeill

Sophie was 22 when she passed. The 20s are very vulnerable for our kids. It’s a very stressful time. You know, they’re coming into adulthood, kind of coming to grips with what they want to do, and maybe they don’t know whether they can do it. There is a lot of stress, I think.

Sophie, graduated with honors from St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, La. She was a well-liked girl, you know, had lots of friends, went to every school dance. She was popular, kind, pretty, funny. Just everything. But she decided to go to LSU Baton Rouge two hours from where we lived and go into chemical engineering.

Continue reading “Sophie’s Story”

Elodie – Sydney’s Story

As told by her mother, Nancy Newton Blair

Her real name was Sydney but she changed it. She was a makeup artist, and she changed it professionally to Elodie about a year before she died. So she was going by Elodie, but I will probably call her Sydney because that was the name I gave her. And I tried very hard to be the great mom and go by what she wanted, but I always mess up. She will always be Sydney to me.

She was a creative genius. She was so smart, very book smart. She started reading early. When she was in first grade, she was reading on an eighth grade reading level. She read everything she could get her hands on. But she was so creative, too.

In high school, she learned about makeup and wanted to do that, so she watched tutorials and taught herself how to be like a professional makeup artist. She went to college and studied psychology but then, after her sophomore year, she came to us and she’s like, Mom and Dad, I really feel like I’m wasting my time. This is what I want to be. And we were like, that’s fine. There’s no point in spending two more years getting a degree if this is what you want to do. Go for it.Continue reading “Elodie – Sydney’s Story”

Hannah’s Story

As told by her mother Lisa Jones Barry

Hannah struggled with anxiety and depression a lot growing up. She had two prior attempts, about a year apart. One of them was six months before she took her life, and the other was a year before that. They all seemed to center around relationships most of the time. She had been in a long term relationship for seven years. So from high school on. They were engaged and broke-up, and that kind of is when it started spiraling. That was when her first attempt was, right after.

Her father, my ex-husband, he and his family struggle with some mental health issues and some addiction issues, which I think all go hand in hand.Continue reading “Hannah’s Story”

Jesse’s Story

As told by his mother Mindy Colliss

Jesse was a Red Seal Welder in northern British Columbia. He had two daughters, two and six. He was separated from their mom, and he was engaged to be married to another girl. So he had two step sons aged 10 and 12 also.

I think it was depression. I think alcohol dependency had a part in it. He did suffer from depression as an adolescent. I had taken him to the doctor for depression around age nine and again around age 14. Both times, you know, he wasn’t given medication or anything. He would just talk to the doctor. He blatantly refused any kind of counseling growing up, I should have pushed harder, you know, but I, you know, I pushed as hard as I kind of could.Continue reading “Jesse’s Story”

‘I made a decision to live’

The journey through grief

As told by Jennifer Walhout

We belong to a club we didn’t sign up for. We just passed the seven year anniversary of losing our son Matthew and I can’t tell the difference between year one and year seven.

MATTHEW WALHOUT

I wish it got better. It gets different, but I don’t think the pain gets any better. At least it’s not for us. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across that Gwen flowers, prose poem that says, “I had my own notions of grief.” It’s quite amazing if you want to find it sometime. It’s a beautiful prose that I often turn to because that was my story, I thought I knew what grief was. We had already been through enough of it. And you think it can’t get any worse, and then it does. It’s so random. It’s life. And you just keep going on.Continue reading “‘I made a decision to live’”

Without Warning: Abbie’s Story

As told by her mother Becky Simmons

Abbie was my youngest. She was born in September of 1997. My husband and I had two older kids. In fact, her sister was 11 years older than her, and her brother was eight and a half years older. I always say, from day one she was a daddy’s girl. I think I came in second. All her life, she loved to hunt. She loved to fish. She loved to go camping with her dad. They would spend hours just driving around.

At the age of 19, she was in college. She went to college to be a nurse.

Continue reading “Without Warning: Abbie’s Story”

‘My Girl’ – Jennifer’s Story

Rachel’s story, as told by her mother Jennifer Loughran

I stayed at daughter’s house for a month after her death.

I had two children, my son Jesse was born in 1988, and my daughter Rachel born in 1991. Initially I was a stay at home mom but not for very long because my ex-husband is an alcoholic He was removed from the house by the police.

We sold the house and split the proceeds after we got it out of escrow. I moved the kids to Pennsylvania and drove for hours to the drop-off place where I felt safe and 40 percent of the time he would not show up for his visits to pick up the kids and they had to deal with all of that on top of what he was doing to me.Continue reading “‘My Girl’ – Jennifer’s Story”

SAMSHA unveils improved FindTreatment.gov 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) is rolling out a newly improved FindTreatment.gov, built to be the most comprehensive resource for persons seeking treatment for mental and substance use disorders, FindTreatment.gov offers you the ability to:

• Search for treatment from multiple sources such as certified substance use and mental health treatment facilities, opioid treatment programs, buprenorphine practitioners, and health care centers.

• Access an interactive map and search filters to tailor treatment options.

• Search for a facility by entering address, city, state, zip code or facility name.

• Download printer-friendly search results including facility location (i.e., phone number, address, website, etc.).

With FindTreatment.gov, treatment facilities also can now register themselves for enhanced outreach to their communities and better visibility of their mental health and substance use treatment services.

All searches on the site are anonymous and confidential.

Visit the site at FindTreatment.gov.

HHS awards more than $130 million in 988 Lifeline Grants

This month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will award more than $130 million in 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline grants – part of the $800 million provided to SAMHSA under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to address the nation’s ongoing mental health and substance use crises. Today, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm, and Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the leader of SAMHSA Miriam Delphin-Rittmon will visit Community Crisis Services, Inc., a local 988 call center, to see the grant funding in action and highlight the importance of these investments. In total, the Biden Administration has invested nearly $500 million to get the 988 Lifeline up and running – through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and other funding streams.Continue reading “HHS awards more than $130 million in 988 Lifeline Grants”

Men’s suicide rate is 3 to 4 times as high as women. This new approach may help

Men overall have a suicide rate three and four times as high as women, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One reason is that men tend to choose more lethal means— most often firearms. Men are also less likely than women to seek mental-health help. And men’s anxiety and depression often come across as anger or irritability rather than worry and sadness, so conditions that can raise the risk of suicide can go undiagnosed and untreated. 

The Wall Street Journal Reports:

“Researchers are investigating new approaches amid rising concern about mental health coming out of the pandemic, and after years in which suicide rates remained stubbornly high. One study found promise in men’s groups aimed at building resilience and camaraderie, particularly among men struggling with the transition to retirement. Another asks men to create “hope kits” with reminders of what they have to live for, such as pictures of loved ones. Another study used videos to show men how they might talk to their doctors about suicidal thoughts, with language that frames getting help as a way of taking charge.Continue reading “Men’s suicide rate is 3 to 4 times as high as women. This new approach may help”