Soon, Mississippi schools will have new suicide-prevention resources, thanks to a collaboration between the state’s Department of Mental Health and Department of Education. The two departments created a 988 and Suicide Prevention Guide that should serve as a toolkit so that schools can provide assistance and resources to students across Mississippi.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a targeted effort to educate children and youth in this state,” MDMH Executive Director Wendy Bailey told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 17. “And we know that students spend the majority of their day at school, so making sure that our educators are educated about warning signs of suicide, risk factors and protective factors, is so key.”
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24, and it is the state’s 14th leading cause of death for all ages.
“Most mental-health conditions begin at a young age … so many people do not get the help that they need when their mental-health condition begins,” Bailey said. “It’s so very important that we focus on that education and dispelling that stigma, and having these open conversations where people will come forward when they need that help so that the community and everyone know how to then connect them to resources so (that) we can get them on the path to recovery as quickly as possible.”
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For many students, the individual that they can or will turn to is inside their school building. Those confidants do not only include classroom teachers, Bailey said. Often, school support staff and others can be resources for students as well.
“You have school resource officers and coaches and janitors and cafeteria workers,” Bailey said. “All of those people may be a trusted person for youth to go to, and if they haven’t received that education about how to respond and what to do, that child may not get connected to
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