National Suicide Prevention Month in September has inspired change throughout the community, from Carlmont High School to San Mateo County.
Multiple organizations, including the Carlmont Students Offering Support (SOS) program and the San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Committee, have been focusing their efforts on raising awareness and preventing suicides.
“It’s being aware, offering educational presentations about where to go for help, knowing what depression looks like, becoming familiar with the symptoms, that makes all the difference,” Carlmont High School Mental Health Specialist Shelley Bustamante said.
For Suicide Prevention Month this year, San Mateo County began promoting the statewide theme of “Love Over Loneliness.” In January, the San Mateo County Board of Directors passed a resolution declaring loneliness a public health crisis and found that 45% of respondents were experiencing difficulties relating to loneliness and isolation.
Carlmont High School has partnered with several organizations, including Mission B and The Parent Venture, to bring awareness about suicide and mental health overall. San Mateo County’s Suicide Prevention Committee has also recently been ramping up efforts to prevent suicides within the community through education and activism.
“Our goal is to reduce stigma around suicide and remove barriers that prevent access to resources. Some of the barriers include stigma and lack of information, so we really want to reduce those barriers for the community and increase residents’ connections to help,” San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Committee Co-Chair Sylvia Tang said.
The Suicide Prevention Committee has created a seven-year suicide prevention roadmap for county residents. It has primarily been focusing on educating residents, promoting safe messaging, and partnering with other sectors of the community, from CalTrain to local hospitals.
In honor of Suicide Prevention Month, the committee has been wearing suicide-prevention ribbons to start conversations about suicide prevention and what the ribbon represents. “Sometimes we wear the ribbon, and someone’s like ‘oh, what is that?’ and it sparks a conversation that someone might not have brought up on their own,” Tang said.
San Mateo County has also been working to get community members involved through interactive mental health and suicide workshops, from eight-hour educational programs for adults and teens, which pop singer Lady Gaga helped launch, to two-day long certifiable trainings. The committee recently hosted a “Be Sensitive, Be Brave” mental health workshop at Carlmont High School, which is their first culturally responsive program adapted for students and designed to train ordinary community members.
Carlmont High School has also been taking steps to reduce school suicides and to ensure the mental wellness of students and staff alike.
(Adobe Stock)
“We’re always trying to have more trainings and moral awareness, and for the third time this year, Mission B is going to come back. That’s an organization that we work with that does training for both staff and students on wellness,” Carlmont Principal Gay Buckland-Murray said.
Buckland-Murray also promoted The Parent Venture’s suicide prevention webinar on Oct. 3, encouraging all students and parents to attend to learn about how to raise awareness and reduce stigmas surrounding student suicides.
Carlmont’s Student Wellness Center and SOS program have also taken steps toward reducing student and staff suicides through various efforts. Each month, SOS hosts a presentation to Carlmont freshman Life Skills classes. For September, they lined up their presentation with Suicide Prevention Month and gave a talk on suicide awareness and prevention.
“SOS is a leadership program, and it started to support kids who were struggling with mental health issues. This turned into an educational program where we meet with the freshmen in the fall for six periods each week. Every time, we discuss a different topic to address the mental health issues they may be encountering or exposed to and how to navigate through that journey,” Bustamante said.
Bustamante, who also serves as the director of the school’s Student Wellness Center, expressed pride in how well students have received the center.
The Student Wellness Center, one of Carlmont’s recent additions, has become known as the students’ favorite safe space. Stuffed with decorative pillows, boosting bright colors, and filled with encouraging posters, students often describe the wellness center as one of their favorite places because of the welcoming environment.
As a result of these programs and the extensive resources offered to local community members by both the Suicide Prevention Committee and high schools like Carlmont, San Mateo County has become known for its success in preventing suicides.
A study comparing the suicide rates of all California counties from 2018-2020 found that San Mateo County had a suicide rate of 8.5% per capita and ranked #38 out of all 44 California counties based on the suicide rate.
Although Suicide Prevention Month only comes once a year, San Mateo County plans to continue raising awareness about the issue and actively working to prevent suicides year-round with the help of the Suicide Prevention Committee.
Buckland-Murray has expressed similar commitments, along with Bustamante, who vows to continue improving SOS and the Student Wellness Center at Carlmont.
“If you take the time to know somebody, you will find out that just about everybody has gone through something, a loss of some sort, that has impacted their life. And some people get stuck, but getting them help before it comes to the point of wanting to end their life when they don’t see another option, that’s the important piece,” Bustamante said.
Hotlines:
- Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988
- StarVista Suicide Lifeline: (650) 579-0350
- Emergency Lifeline: 911
