September is Suicide Prevention Month
If you’ve lived long enough, then you’ve probably been affected by the news of someone’s passing by suicide. Maybe it was a loved one, whether a family member or a close friend. Maybe you were shocked to hear the passing of a celebrity like Robin Williams, Shoki Mokgapa, Lee Thompson Young, Jarrid Wilson, or Anthony Bourdain.
According to the World Health Organization, suicide is the 17th leading cause of death worldwide, the 10th most common cause of death in the United States, and the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 34 years old (CDC).
Every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide. But unlike other leading causes of death, suicide is 100% preventable.
Suicide occurs across all demographics (e.g. age, gender, education-level, etc.) and mental illness is but one of a myriad of other catalysts that can lead a person to consider suicide, others include:
Relationship problems
Stress from financial, legal or other issues
Substance abuse
Job situation
Bullying
Discrimination
Violence
And for every successful suicide attempt, there are 25 attempts that are unsuccessful.
How You Can Help
First, if you are someone who is having thoughts about harming yourself, know that help is available.
You are not alone.
If you want to talk by text, then text HELLO to the Crisis Line (open a new text message and type in 741741). OR call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Pain isn’t always obvious. People can feel isolated and alone even when they are around family and friends.
And sometimes, even those of us with great intentions, may not know the best way to reach out to someone we are concerned about.
So what can be done?
Our answer is to lead with listening and sincerity. Check-in with the people in your community. If you see warning signs and have concerns, be direct:
“How are you coping with what's been happening in your life?”
“Does it ever get so tough that you think about hurting yourself?”
And if a person tells you they are thinking about suicide, tell them that help is available and reassure them that they are not alone and that you’re going to get through this together:
“I hear that you’re struggling. I love you no matter what. We’re going to get through this together. Right now, I think we should talk to someone who can help you get through this.”
Suicide Prevention Week
To raise awareness around suicide prevention, Findlay House Global is observing the National Week of Suicide Prevention (September 5th - 11th, 2021) and World Suicide Prevention Day (Friday 10 September 2021) with a week of challenges shared via social media to fuel awareness and educate as many people as possible, because suicide is 100% preventable.
Join the challenge! And click on an image to download it and share it to social media. Or click here to download all the images.
Suicide and Development
Suicide is a serious public health problem. And to address it we must consider the contributing factors (including economic and environmental stressors) that impact the mental and emotional well-being of communities.
The field of Development is concerned with using resources to improve the standard of living and well-being of people. And although in the U.S. $247 billion is spent on mental wellness for youth and their families, marginalized youth are less likely to receive care for their depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Young people who are also exposed to violence and racial discrimination are at even greater risk for suicidal thoughts and attempts. Because of the stigma around mental health, marginalized youth often wait until they are suicidal before they seek help. Thus, supportive environments in the family, at school and in the wider community are of critical importance.
Number 3 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages.” And one of the targets (Target 3.4) is to reduce premature mortality by one third, including through prevention, treatment, and promotion of mental health and well-being.
Remittance vs. Foreign Direct Investment vs. Official Development Aid in 2019
Why are we so passionate about seeing impacted peoples leading and owning the development sector? The numbers speak for themselves.
Billionaire donations to aid institutions (official development assistance) do NOT represent the majority of funds that go toward direct aid and community development. The majority of aid and development funds come from remittances - money sent by everyday people, some of whom work less than the minimum wage and who are subjected to discrimination and exploitation.
Impacted peoples are already investing in themselves by taking care of their families and extended community. These are the people who know what life is truly like in their community. Impacted peoples should be the ones making the decisions that will affect their lives and the lives of their children, extend family, neighbors and friends.
Communication for Social Change: The Key to Sustainable Development
By Zipporah Orbisi
FHG Quality Engineer and Consultant
What is Communicating for Social Change?
How does a person create the narrative that will help bring about world peace, and more importantly, who will share the story?
At the turn of the millennium the UN brought together 191 countries to come up with a 15 year plan to conquer 8 global objectives called the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDG’s). However, it was understood that these goals were only one part of the solution to creating positive community development across the world. The key to implementing these changes is in the power of communication for social change.
Communicating for social change is assisting individuals and communities in defining their needs to accelerate their prosperity on their terms.
Battle Plan for Sustainable Community Development
As we endeavor to conquer humanitarian crises such as world poverty and wide-spread famine, we must first go through a communication boot camp.
You must begin with engaging your frontline stakeholders in the communities. The people who will be the vessels directly assisting in bringing forth change.
From there, be sure to incorporate all stakeholders and policymakers on common and cohesive grounds for increased social mobilization.
Having that foundational path in development communication will assist with the propagation of change, allowing for long term sustainability.
A Victory Within Reach
So ultimately how will we know if the “communication” is working?
We must measure our efforts through Social Accountability. Finding a means to quantify the efforts—from policymaker to individual—will help to keep progression constant. Communication can be quantified by things such as the number of public information campaigns, platforms for public dialogue and debate, social audits, and feedback loops from citizens to policymakers.
Social accountability provides a societal system of checks and balances which can inform restructuring objectives and laying the foundation for future goal setting.
At the end of 2015, the UN took a look at its 15 year plan results to find an overwhelming success of statistical progression in each of the 8 MDG categories. Extreme poverty was down 33%, literacy rates for children soared to 91%, women now make up 41% of paid workers outside of agriculture, and there were many more fantastical statistics to share.
What I find to be most impressive is the acceptance from local communities to not only drive the change but also push for more results.
The United Nations decided to enter into another 15 year venture, ending in 2030, in effort to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Together, with individuals in communities leading the efforts, will be the only way to contend with twice the number of original goals.
Together, using communication for social change, we will continue to knock down historical doors of aggrievance and replace them with pathways to world peace.