After several tragic deaths in recent years, a statewide suicide conference is coming to Kosciusko County to help prevent more from occurring.
Monday morning, members of the 2015 Indiana Suicide Conference planning committee held a press conference at the Boathouse Restaurant, Winona Lake, to discuss the Aug. 27 daylong event. The conference – titled “Journey from Hopelessness to Health” – will be hosted by Grace College at Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center, 200 Seminary Drive, Winona Lake.
At the conference, there will be two presenters and nine break-out sessions.
Keynote speaker Eric Hipple is a former Detroit Lions quarterback who lost his son to suicide in 2000. Also speaking will be Dr. Phil Rodgers, the vice president of Design, Development and Evaluation for LivingWorks Education. He spent 11 years as an evaluation scientist for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The break-out sessions will cover suicide in the refugee community and LGBTQ community, suicide prevention and outreach programs and law enforcement suicides, among others.
Cost to register is $25, and can be done online at http://form.jotformpro.com/form/51815566347967
Giving a brief history of what led to the conference coming to Grace College, Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Superintendent Brett Boggs said, “In early December 2012, a Tippecanoe Valley High School student attending our Burket Educational Center, that’s our alternative school, took his life. Later that same day, his father also took his life. That double suicide brought a great deal of pain and questions to our schools and to our community. So to help us all deal with that, to try to help our schools and community deal with that double suicide, a group of representatives of our school and our community was formed that later became known as the Tippecanoe Valley Community Mental Health Task Force.”
The tragedies continued. On the Friday prior to Christmas vacation in December 2012, an eighth-grade student and her father both were killed in a traffic accident. On Jan. 7, 2013, Valley’s corporation treasurer took her life after being confronted about the misuse of corporation funds.
The following September, Boggs said, five members of the Valley Task Force attended the Indiana Suicide Prevention Summit in Indianapolis. Following the conference, a member of the Task Force suggested a similar event be held in this area.
“Bringing a suicide prevention summit to our area became a goal of the Task Force, and we initially pursued that by contacting Alice Jordan-Miles, she’s been obviously a key player in bringing this event here and obviously was a key person in bringing it to Indianapolis,” Boggs said.
Jordan-Miles shared that the planning committee was interested in moving the event to different locations throughout the state. That started the dialog about bringing the statewide conference to Kosciusko.
Jordan-Miles is the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Behavioral Health and Family Studies Institute assistant director, project director of the Indiana Suicide Prevention Coalition and vice chair of the Indiana Suicide Task Force.
“Meanwhile, the tragedies continued at home,” Boggs said. During the 2014-15 school year, the lives of a middle school student and two high school students were lost to suicide. Another high school student was killed in an accident at his home.
The Task Force has worked to provide suicide prevention training to Valley’s students, staff and the community. The school corporation has greater access to mental health professionals and resources, while local churches have become more involved in the schools.
“A great deal has been accomplished, yet very much remains,” Boggs said. “So with the generous cooperation of Grace College and some key mental health leaders from throughout the state, our dream of bringing the statewide suicide conference is becoming a reality.”
Jordan-Miles said, “The reason this is so important, not only to Indiana but also to our country, is that since we began this news conference, approximately 12-13 minutes ago, one person has died by suicide in our country. In the state of Indiana, youth die every 2-1/2 days. I don’t know about anyone here, but to me that’s pretty darn profound.”
Jordan-Miles said that in 1996, Hoosiers formed a group to discuss suicide in Indiana. Through the work of Dr. Kathleen O’Connell, a vice chancellor at IPFW Fort Wayne, the Indiana Suicide Prevention Coalition was formed in 2001. ISPC is made up of 10 councils across the state representing the 92 counties in Indiana.
“These are not big corporations, these are not big hospitals, these are all just grassroots people wanting to make a difference in saving lives in their own backyard,” Jordan-Miles said.
Since then, the state has initiated several grants and programs aimed at reducing the number of suicides and improving mental health services.
Janet Schnell, chairperson for the American Association of Suicidology representing suicide loss survivors, discussed statistics and why Indiana needs to be more proactive in suicide prevention.
“Our suicide rate has not dropped since 2007. In 2007, we increased in suicide deaths, so much so in the last three years it’s been alarming to the national press,” Schnell said. “We actually have not been below the national average since 1999. That’s not acceptable. We need to do more.”
For every suicide death, statistics show 25 people need help.
“They’re requesting support groups, they’re requesting mental health providers, they need to talk about being a survivor. And that’s where I come in,” Schnell said as the AAS chairperson.
“We need to do more,” she said. “Many people don’t realize there’s actually more suicide deaths than homicide deaths. Suicide ranks 10th as a cause of death, compared to homicide which ranks 16th.”
In 2015, there were over 1,028,000 suicide attempts. Youth between sixth and 12th grades have one of the highest rates of suicide.
“With that, we have to look at the survivors who are left behind,” Schnell said. “So for every death in the school system, we have at least 25 people who’ve been affected by suicide.”
Survivors need to know what to do after a suicide death and youth want to do more to bring awareness, but “because of the stigma associated with suicide, they’re told they can’t,” she said. “So we have a big fear in our communities that we don’t want to glamorize a suicide death because we’re thinking more people will go out and die by suicide. But what we’re doing is we’re leaving our youth with nothing to do, and they’re asking what can they do to help with the grieving process.”
Jordan-Miles said they want to draw everyone to the Aug. 27 conference, not just medical professionals.
“We want to attract anybody. Everybody, from a very small community to a very big community like Indianapolis. This is all because of Brett Boggs. He was very diligent in moving that conference because everything seems to happen in the state of Indianapolis. So we wanted to move it to areas that have been affected so sadly, especially with youth suicides, and the great number that (Boggs’) school corporation has faced. And Grace has been so helpful in offering their facilities to us,” she said.
If $25 is too much for anyone to attend the conference, Jordan-Miles said they should contact her because they don’t want anyone not to come just because they couldn’t afford the fee.
There also will be exhibitor space for for-profits and non-profit organizations at the conference.
Sponsors for the conference include Parkview Behavioral Health, Quarles & Brady LLP, Krieg Devault, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, IPFW, Bloomington Meadows Hospital, Grace College & Seminary and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Cost to register is $25, and can be done online at http://form.jotformpro.com/form/51815566347967
Giving a brief history of what led to the conference coming to Grace College, Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Superintendent Brett Boggs said, “In early December 2012, a Tippecanoe Valley High School student attending our Burket Educational Center, that’s our alternative school, took his life. Later that same day, his father also took his life. That double suicide brought a great deal of pain and questions to our schools and to our community. So to help us all deal with that, to try to help our schools and community deal with that double suicide, a group of representatives of our school and our community was formed that later became known as the Tippecanoe Valley Community Mental Health Task Force.”
The tragedies continued. On the Friday prior to Christmas vacation in December 2012, an eighth-grade student and her father both were killed in a traffic accident. On Jan. 7, 2013, Valley’s corporation treasurer took her life after being confronted about the misuse of corporation funds.
The following September, Boggs said, five members of the Valley Task Force attended the Indiana Suicide Prevention Summit in Indianapolis. Following the conference, a member of the Task Force suggested a similar event be held in this area.
“Bringing a suicide prevention summit to our area became a goal of the Task Force, and we initially pursued that by contacting Alice Jordan-Miles, she’s been obviously a key player in bringing this event here and obviously was a key person in bringing it to Indianapolis,” Boggs said.
Jordan-Miles shared that the planning committee was interested in moving the event to different locations throughout the state. That started the dialog about bringing the statewide conference to Kosciusko.
Jordan-Miles is the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Behavioral Health and Family Studies Institute assistant director, project director of the Indiana Suicide Prevention Coalition and vice chair of the Indiana Suicide Task Force.
“Meanwhile, the tragedies continued at home,” Boggs said. During the 2014-15 school year, the lives of a middle school student and two high school students were lost to suicide. Another high school student was killed in an accident at his home.
The Task Force has worked to provide suicide prevention training to Valley’s students, staff and the community. The school corporation has greater access to mental health professionals and resources, while local churches have become more involved in the schools.
“A great deal has been accomplished, yet very much remains,” Boggs said. “So with the generous cooperation of Grace College and some key mental health leaders from throughout the state, our dream of bringing the statewide suicide conference is becoming a reality.”
Jordan-Miles said, “The reason this is so important, not only to Indiana but also to our country, is that since we began this news conference, approximately 12-13 minutes ago, one person has died by suicide in our country. In the state of Indiana, youth die every 2-1/2 days. I don’t know about anyone here, but to me that’s pretty darn profound.”
Jordan-Miles said that in 1996, Hoosiers formed a group to discuss suicide in Indiana. Through the work of Dr. Kathleen O’Connell, a vice chancellor at IPFW Fort Wayne, the Indiana Suicide Prevention Coalition was formed in 2001. ISPC is made up of 10 councils across the state representing the 92 counties in Indiana.
“These are not big corporations, these are not big hospitals, these are all just grassroots people wanting to make a difference in saving lives in their own backyard,” Jordan-Miles said.
Since then, the state has initiated several grants and programs aimed at reducing the number of suicides and improving mental health services.
Janet Schnell, chairperson for the American Association of Suicidology representing suicide loss survivors, discussed statistics and why Indiana needs to be more proactive in suicide prevention.
“Our suicide rate has not dropped since 2007. In 2007, we increased in suicide deaths, so much so in the last three years it’s been alarming to the national press,” Schnell said. “We actually have not been below the national average since 1999. That’s not acceptable. We need to do more.”
For every suicide death, statistics show 25 people need help.
“They’re requesting support groups, they’re requesting mental health providers, they need to talk about being a survivor. And that’s where I come in,” Schnell said as the AAS chairperson.
“We need to do more,” she said. “Many people don’t realize there’s actually more suicide deaths than homicide deaths. Suicide ranks 10th as a cause of death, compared to homicide which ranks 16th.”
In 2015, there were over 1,028,000 suicide attempts. Youth between sixth and 12th grades have one of the highest rates of suicide.
“With that, we have to look at the survivors who are left behind,” Schnell said. “So for every death in the school system, we have at least 25 people who’ve been affected by suicide.”
Survivors need to know what to do after a suicide death and youth want to do more to bring awareness, but “because of the stigma associated with suicide, they’re told they can’t,” she said. “So we have a big fear in our communities that we don’t want to glamorize a suicide death because we’re thinking more people will go out and die by suicide. But what we’re doing is we’re leaving our youth with nothing to do, and they’re asking what can they do to help with the grieving process.”
Jordan-Miles said they want to draw everyone to the Aug. 27 conference, not just medical professionals.
“We want to attract anybody. Everybody, from a very small community to a very big community like Indianapolis. This is all because of Brett Boggs. He was very diligent in moving that conference because everything seems to happen in the state of Indianapolis. So we wanted to move it to areas that have been affected so sadly, especially with youth suicides, and the great number that (Boggs’) school corporation has faced. And Grace has been so helpful in offering their facilities to us,” she said.
If $25 is too much for anyone to attend the conference, Jordan-Miles said they should contact her because they don’t want anyone not to come just because they couldn’t afford the fee.
There also will be exhibitor space for for-profits and non-profit organizations at the conference.
Sponsors for the conference include Parkview Behavioral Health, Quarles & Brady LLP, Krieg Devault, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, IPFW, Bloomington Meadows Hospital, Grace College & Seminary and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
(Story By The Times Union)
