The weekend of January 25th, I had the honor and opportunity to represent New York City at a leadership conference in Houston, Texas for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. There were roughly two-hundred in attendance from all over the United States, all with a different story and frame of reference; and I learned a great deal from each of them. Here are just five of those things I learned:
Suicide Touches Everyone in Many Different Ways.
People at the conference had lost brothers, sisters, grandmas, and best friends to suicide. Some had made attempts in the past themselves. Some were in the medical field who had patients that attempted or completed suicide. No matter what the reason, each was there to make a difference and move forward by helping to save other people’s lives.
We Need to be a Better PR Department.
When people think of suicide, they think of gloom and doom and stigma. And it is absolutely a sad and harrowing issue. But there’s hope. The reality is that most people at one point in their lives has thought about suicide and never attempted. While suicide takes the lives of over one million people each year, in truth it’s a small fraction of people who have had those thoughts and not attempted. We can overcome. There is hope and many of us are living proof.
Physician Aid-in-Dying is an Über-complicated Issue.
This has been in the past known as physician assisted suicide. In some U.S. states, physician aid-in-dying is perfectly legal, in others it isn’t and it is only legislated through the states and not federal government. Questions were brought up in a town-hall forum that addressed folks living in constant physical pain. Others about the many brave souls living with ALS. Some recounted their own fight for life in the face of crippling physical pain. There are many check-points to go through (psych-evaluations, is it a terminal illness etc) and I don’t have an official position on it but I think this is an issue we need to keep on the table and continue to discuss and resolve to come toward some sort of resolution on.
We Need More In-Person Communication.
You all know I love social media and emails but there is nothing in the world like communicating in person with someone. Collaboration and the exchange of oxygen and little physical nuances, hugs, and handshakes are priceless—things that have a greater barrier of entry when communicating exclusively through email and Facebook. Take more flights, drive out that extra thirty minutes, schedule that coffee in—you’ll be amazed at how invigorated you’ll be at the end and how much you’ll have accomplished.
We Need Fewer Chefs and More (humble) Sous-Chefs
Many sous-chefs (think of 2nd in command to the executive chef) I know are brilliant chefs who happen to be working under an equally brilliant exec-chef. But these sous-chefs don’t care who gets the credit for the creation of the lobster bisque or the hazelnut souffle cake, they do it and do it well because it needs to get done. The same thing goes in the field of suicide prevention. The field itself is still much smaller than it needs to be and collaboration between two or more humble persons or organizations is needed to grow and create the work that needs to be done in order to save lives.
These are just a few things I learned and I have to urge that if you’re looking to get involved with a cause that needs people to put in some elbow grease and not just open up their check-book, this is the one. Hit me up as to how you can get involved on a basis that makes sense for your busy life. Thank you!!
PS. You should subscribe to this (my) blog because you’ll get a mixture of suicide prevention, humor, creativity, and some good ole’ fashioned love.
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