TSPN Call to Action SUICIDE PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED FOR MAY 9 IN NASHVILLE T E N N E S S E E S U I C I D E P R E V E N T I O N N E T W O R K

Transcription

1 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 MARCH 2013 TSPN Call to Action T E N N E S S E E S U I C I D E P R E V E N T I O N N E T W O R K SUICIDE PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED FOR MAY 9 IN NASHVILLE The Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network is excited to announce its Suicide Prevention Symposium, set for Thursday, May 9, at Trevecca Community Church, located at 335 Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Additional Symposium Sponsors Governor s Council for Armed Forces, Veterans and Their Families Advisory Council Meets in Hermitage Love Never Dies Quilt Project TLC Update 4 Facebook-SAVE Research Program TSPN Regional Calendar Advisory Council Contact Information PLUS PARK BOULEVARD, SUITE 201 NASHVILLE, TN PHONE: (615) FAX: (615) TSPN@TSPN.ORG Our theme, "Your Role in Suicide Prevention", reflects the opportunity for new projects and initiatives made possible by the revised National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Jason H. Padgett, MPA, MSM, Task Force Liaison/Secretariat for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, will be our featured speaker. Mr. Padgett participated in the writing and development of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP). He will discuss the NSSP and the importance of everyone taking a role in its implementation. Tennessee Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey has also been confirmed as a speaker for this event. Gov. Bill Haslam has also been invited, alongside U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. We have arranged for several dynamic speakers to lead us in breakout sessions on topics like suicide and substance abuse, suicide among older adults and within the LGBT population, suicide prevention within juvenile justice facilities, and response to suicide crises within schools and universities. We are expecting around 300 participants at this event including legislators, government officials, health care professionals, educators, clergy, journalists, community activists, survivors of suicide and suicide attempts, and the general public. Your registration fee of $35 entitles you to participation in all symposium lectures and breakout sessions, as well as the continental breakfast and conference luncheon. 5 contact hours are available for symposium participants. As of press time, 143 seats have been registered or reserved, so make sure to get your registration in soon. You can do this by submitting the registration form and your check to the TSPN central office; the form is available via our homepage ( Guests who wish to pay by credit card may register online at our Eventbrite registration site ( (Note that the price of credit card registration is slightly higher due to processing fees.) We look forward to hearing from you and to having you as our guest for this life-changing, life-saving event. We will be happy to provide with additional information as needed; you can reach us at tspn@tspn.org or (615) Suicide Prevention Symposium Sponsors The Network wishes to thank the agencies which have committed to sponsoring this event as of press time. Additional sponsors are listed on page 5. Presenting Sponsors Underwriter Sponsors

2 TSPN CALL TO ACTION ADDITIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM SPONSORS Friend Sponsors Event Supporters GOVERNOR S COUNCIL TO FOCUS ON VETERANS NEEDS TSPN Executive Director Scott Ridgway presented at the inaugural meeting of the Governor s Council for Armed Forces, Veterans, and Their Families, held February 28 at Tennessee Towers in Nashville. This group was created Governor Bill Haslam via Executive Order 15, which reconstitutes the existing Governor s Council on Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families. The change was deemed necessary to reflect a renewed focus on problems affecting today s veterans, specifically suicide prevention, unemployment, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This group is chaired by Wendell Cheek, Deputy Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs (TDVA), and TDVA Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder was among the guests at the first meeting. (Cheek is also a member of TSPN s Intra-State Departmental Group.) Besides Ridgway s presentation, the meeting also included a presentation by Cheek on successful programs in other states to help veterans in crisis. Specifically, Cheek provided the group with information on Virginia Values Veterans (V3), which offers support and resources to companies that hire transitioning veterans, Guardsmen, and Reservists. Cheek also discussed the Home Base Program, a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital. This program provides clinical care and support services to veterans across New England who suffer from PTSD or traumatic brain injury (TBI), educates communities about the problems facing military families, and supports PTSD and TBI research. More information about these programs are available at their respective websites, and Members also discussed recruitment of additional members for the Governor s Council. The Executive Order issued by Haslam mandates the inclusion of delegates from veterans service organizations, higher education, county and city government, state departments, and advocacy groups in the area of mental health, substance abuse, homelessness, and brain injury. Family members of previously deployed service personnel will also participate in the group, and a sitting member of both the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives will serve as an ex officio member. All members of the Governor s Council will be personally appointed by the Office of the Governor. TSPN anticipates regular consultation by the Governor s Council as it works to meet the needs of veterans in Tennessee. Future updates on the work of the Council will be provided in forthcoming editions of the TSPN Call to Action. PAGE 2

3 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 TSPN ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETS IN HERMITAGE The TSPN Advisory Council hosted Dr. Karen Cline-Parhamovich, Chief Medical Examiner for the Tennessee Department of Health, at its Advisory Council meeting on February 13, held at the Metro Nashville Police Department s Hermitage Precinct. Cline-Parhamovich, a forensic pathologist at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, is the state s first full-time state medical examiner. As such, she is charged with supervising all death investigations in the state, from the scene of the death through the autopsy and up to the death certificate. Cline-Parhamovich discussed her office s plans to develop an electronic case management system for the county medical examiners to ensure more timely and more accurate death investigations. She also spoke about the need for immediate access to accurate death data in terms of suicide prevention, as well as the legal and financial aspects of county-mandated autopsies. In other developments, Advisory Council members ratified a revised version of the Tennessee Strategy for Suicide Prevention. The new document incorporates goals and priorities endorsed in the revised National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, which was published in September. Additionally, members previewed Status of Suicide in Tennessee 2013, the latest in a series of reports on suicide trends in our state and TSPN s suicide prevention efforts. The document will be formally printed later this month and will be published on the TSPN website. The Council also considered a developing project on gun safety. Access to firearms is a known suicide risk factor, and gunshot wounds have a far higher lethality than other means of attempting suicide. The current project is intended to present common-sense gun safety tips most notably, keeping potentially suicidal people away from guns in a manner that engages people who use, buy, and sell firearms. Other presentations included a segment by Lygia Williams from Office of Crisis and Suicide Prevention Services within the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (and Program Director/Principal Investigator for the Tennessee Lives Count Project) on an analysis of suicide prevention training outcomes conducted by Jennifer Lockman of Centerstone Research Institute. TSPN member and suicide survivor Teresa Culbreath presented details of a proposed specialty license plate promoting suicide prevention; the project may raise funds for suicide prevention agencies in Tennessee, including TSPN. The next Advisory Council meeting will take the form of a strategic planning meeting. It will be held on Wednesday, June 5, also at the Hermitage Precinct. Additional information will be available in forthcoming editions of the TSPN Call to Action. LOVE NEVER DIES QUILT PROJECT SEEKING SUBMISSIONS TSPN is relaying the following message on behalf of our Quilt Committee. We encourage you to relay this information to anyone who may be interested in the project. It is the Network's intention to TSPN's eleventh "Love Never Dies" quilt at the Suicide Prevention Awareness Day event, scheduled for 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM on Wednesday, September 11, at Trevecca Community Church, located at 335 Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville. As of press time, ten panels have been confirmed for the new quilt. Plans are now being made for the creation of our next memorial quilt, which will be displayed at TSPN suicide educational and awareness events all over Tennessee. If you would like a memorial square to be included on the quilt in memory of a close family member, please let Karyl Chastain Beal know now, so that she can send the information about the quilt directly to you. (Note: There is no charge to memorialize anyone on the quilt.) Contact Karyl at arlynsmom@bellsouth.net or phone her at (931) The Love Never Dies Memorial Quilt is one of TSPN s most high-profile projects. It features customized photos of people lost to suicide as submitted by their loved ones. These quilts, which are exhibited at Network awareness events and exhibits, help to humanize the problem of suicide and drive home the urgency of suicide prevention. Eight memorial quilts have been created since 2006; the latest one was revealed at the Suicide Prevention Awareness Day event in Nashville on September 12, Here, Quilt Committee Chair Karyl Chastain Beal (fourth from right) welcomes the family of Autumn Corrine Coco Chadwick, who is among those memorialized on the new quilt. PAGE 3

4 TSPN CALL TO ACTION TLC UPDATE: ENHANCED FOLLOW-UP PROGRAM The following article on TLC s Enhanced Follow-Up Program was contributed by Dawn Puster, Director of Tennessee Crisis Services and Community Support for Youth Villages. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) in partnership with TSPN, Mental Health America, Centerstone Research Institute and TN Lives Counts provide many roles in the prevention of suicide in the state of Tennessee. Services provided by the organizations include: provider trainings, college trainings and outreach with communities when there has been a completed suicide (postvention). Youth Villages with collaboration with the other partners has developed an Enhanced Follow-up program for youth who demonstrate a high risk for suicide. This service is provided by two Enhanced Follow-Up Specialists for a period of three months for each participating family after the child has reported suicidal thoughts, gestured or attempted to commit suicide. The child and family are identified by the statewide crisis program as being high risk for continued suicidal thoughts, gestures or attempts. This grant provides an opportunity to apply enhanced interventions (for three months) with the goal of reducing suicide risk for those youth considered to be high risk. Additionally, there is research indicating that a high percentage of persons who receive a crisis assessment and intervention do not remember the interventions and referrals made during the assessment time even if they are written down. The Enhanced Follow-Up service will allow counselors to continue working with the family to reinforce previously recommended interventions and safety planning. It is the belief that families will be more successful in following through with recommendations and referrals if additional follow up services were put in place to help guide the family through these processes. The service the families receive consists of five face-to-face sessions in the home, at school or at a provider s office. Additionally, they receive seven phone sessions in which goals and interventions completed are reviewed. The Enhanced Follow-Up Specialists work with the families specifically on means restriction, medication compliance, affect in the home, building social supports and collaboration with the child and families current and/or new service providers. Additionally, the children are given a survey in the first session and the last session to be collected and used for research and evaluation. The surveys include the HOPE Scale, the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory, and the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire. FACEBOOK, SAVE join FORCES FOR RESEARCH PROJECT Facebook is collaborating with Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) for a research project on suicide warning signs given by users of social media. The hypothesis guiding this project is that, just like in real life, people who die by or attempt suicide give off certain cues that hint at what they are planning to do seeking advice on how to die, talking about being trapped or being a burden, etc.. The current project may help managers of these sites respond sooner to users in crisis, referring and connecting them to the help they need. The project may also help researchers and counselors understand what kind of social media activity suggests a future suicide attempt. "Friends sometimes don t ask important questions for fear of being invasive, explains SAVE Executive Director Dan Reidenburg in a January 23 Bloomberg report. If we can see what s happening, we can train people to look for it." Researchers will review the Facebook activity of 20 users who ultimately died by suicide all located within the same county in Minnesota for common and correlating factors. The findings should be available sometime next year. Many search engines and social media platforms have mechanisms in place to help users who actively indicate suicidal intent, but this project goes one step further by trying to determine more subtle watch-words and triggers. The project is not without critics. I would be careful with a program like this, even if it s for the greater good, said Daniel Rosentreter, the chief strategy officer of the marketing firm FutureBrand North America, who was interviewed for the Bloomberg report. (Facebook is) like no other brand because they re so essential to people s lives. They need to be careful not to be seen as Big Brother. Rosentreter cites a pending $15 billion class-action lawsuit from users who claim that changes in Facebook s privacy protocols exposed their personal data to unwanted access by site advertisers. PAGE 4

5 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 TSPN REGIONAL CALENDAR No December meetings are scheduled unless otherwise marked. Dates in bold and in crimson indicate alternate meeting dates intended to accommodate state holidays or other previously scheduled events. East Tennessee Region monthly, 3rd Thursday, 12:00 PM Mental Health Association of East Tennessee, Inc., 9050 Executive Park Drive, Suite 104-A, Knoxville, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, and November 21 Memphis/Shelby County Region monthly, 3rd Tuesday, 11:30 AM Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, March 19, April 16, May 21, June 18, July 16, August 20, September 17, October 15, and November 19 Mid-Cumberland Region monthly, 2nd Thursday, 9:30 AM Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc., 937 Herman Street, Nashville, March 14, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8, September 12, October 10, and November 14 Northeast Region monthly, 4th Tuesday, 10:30 AM Boone s Creek Christian Church, 305 Christian Church Road, Gray, March 26, April 23, May 28, June 25, July 23, August 27, September 24, October 22, and November 26 Rural West monthly, 3rd Wednesday, 10:30 AM Behavioral Health Initiatives, 36C Sandstone Circle, Jackson, March 20, April 17, May 15, June 19, July 17, August 21, September 18, October 16, and November 20 South Central monthly, 2nd Monday, 11:00 AM Conference Room A, South Central Regional Health Office, 1216 Trotwood Avenue, Columbia, March 11, April 8, May 13, June 10, July 8, August 12, September 9, October 14, and November 18 Southeast Region monthly, 1st Thursday, 10:00 AM Johnson Mental Health Center, 420 Bell Avenue, Chattanooga, March 7, April 4, May 2, June 6, July 11, August 1, September 5, October 3, November 7, and December 5 Upper Cumberland Region monthly, 4th Thursday, 9:00 AM Volunteer Behavioral Health Care Systems, 1200 Willow Avenue, Cookeville, March 28, April 25, May 23, June 27, July 25, August 22, September 26, October 24, and November 21 Intra-State Department Meetings Volunteer Room, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 220 French Landing Drive,, Nashville, (2:00 PM) May 1, August 7, and November 6 Advisory Council June 5-6 (Montgomery Bell State Park Inn, 1000 Hotel Avenue, Burns) September 11 (Trevecca Community Church, 335 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville) Blount County Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention Alliance monthly, 1st Friday, 12:00 PM Boys and Girls Club Meeting Room, Fort Craig Elementary School, 520 South Washington Street, Maryville, March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, August 2, September 6, October 4, November 1, December 6 Davidson County Suicide Prevention Task Force monthly, 4th Wednesday, 3:00 PM Metro Public Health Department, rd Avenue North, Nashville, To be announced Giles County Suicide Prevention Task Force quarterly, 3rd Monday, 1:30 PM Giles County Career Center, 125 South Cedar Lane, Pulaski, March 20, June 19, September 18, and December 18 Hickman-Perry County Suicide Prevention Task Force monthly, 4th Friday, 1:30 PM Senior Care Building, Hickman Community Hospital, 135 East Swan Street, Centerville, March 22, April 26, May 24, June 28, July 26, August 23, September 27, October 25, and November 22 Montgomery-Houston-Humphreys-Stewart Suicide Prevention Task Force monthly, 1st Tuesday, 9 AM Behavioral HealthCare Center at Clarksville, 930 Professional Park Drive, Clarksville, April 2, May 7, June 4, July 2, August 6, September 3, October 1, November 5, and December 3 Rutherford County Suicide Prevention Coalition monthly, 1st Tuesday, 6 PM ITNOLAP Pallet & Crating, 651 Middle Tennessee Road, Murfreesboro, March 5, April 2, May 7, June 4, July 2, August 6, September 3, October 1, November 5, and December 3 PAGE 5

6 ADVISORY COUNCIL CONTACT INFORMATION If you are interested in getting involved with TSPN on a local level or have other questions, contact the chairperson of your region as indicated by the map provided below: East Tennessee region Anne Young, MS, CAS (865) anneyoung@cornerstoneofrecovery.com Memphis and Shelby County Renee Brown (901) , extension 5873 renee.brown3@va.gov Mid-Cumberland region Stephanie Barger, M.Div. (270) tspnmidcumberlandvolunteer@gmail.com Northeast region Harold Leonard, MA, LPC-MHSP (423) hleonard@centurylink.net Rural West region Anne Henning-Rowan, MS (731) annerowan@hughes.net South Central region Karyl Chastain Beal, MEd, CT (931) karylcb@bellsouth.net Southeast region Tim Tatum, MA (423) tim_tatum@chs.net Upper Cumberland region Jodi Bartlett, Ed. S, LPC-MHSP (931) or (931) , ext. 166 jbartlett@vbhcs.org Advisory Council Chair Jennifer Harris (931) jennifer.harris@baptisthospital.com Executive Director Scott Ridgway, MS (615) sridgway@tspn.org Advisory Council Emeritus Group Chair Sam Bernard, PhD, FAAETS, DABCEM (423) samdbernard@gmail.com Lake Lauderdale Obion Henry Weakley Dyer Gibson Carroll Crockett Haywood Madison Tipton Chester Henderson Benton Decatur Stewart Houston Humphreys Perry Montgomery Dickson Hickman Lewis Cheatham Maury Robertson Davidson Williamson Marshall Macon Sumner Clay Pickett Scott Claiborne Hancock Campbell Fentress Hawkins Trousdale Jackson Overton Union Smith Wilson Rutherford Bedford Cannon Putnam Morgan De Kalb Cumberland White Roane Warren Van Buren Rhea Coffee Monroe Grundy McMinn Sequatchie Bledsoe Meigs Anderson Grainger Hamblen Jefferson Knox Cocke Sevier Loudon Blount Greene Washington Unicoi Sullivan Carter Johnson Shelby Fayette Hardeman McNairy Hardin Wayne Lawrence Giles Lincoln Moore Franklin Marion Hamilton Bradley Polk