Spreading the Word

Associates of Memorial Epworth Center and Memorial Children’s Hospital joined others from the community at the Paint the Town Yellow, a 5K walk/run raising awareness of youth suicide prevention. Participants wore yellow in support of the cause, as well as wrote words of encouragement and messages of remembrance for those lost to suicide. Memorial Epworth Center and Memorial Children’s Hospital helped sponsor the event.

Youth suicide is a growing health concern throughout the U.S. For those between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third-leading cause of death, resulting in approximately 4,600 lives lost each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A nationwide survey of youth in grades 9 – 12 in public and private schools in the U.S. found that 16 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide, 13 percent reported creating a plan and 8 percent reported trying to take their own life in the 12 months preceding the survey, according to the CDC. Each year, approximately 157,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 24 receive medical care for self-inflicted injuries at emergency departments across the U.S.

What can you do to help reverse this epidemic? Keep your eyes and ears open to potential warning signs for young persons considering suicide:

• Talking about dying: Any mention of dying, disappearing, jumping, shooting oneself, or other types of self-harm

• Recent loss: Through death, divorce, separation, broken relationship, self-confidence, self-esteem, loss of interest in friends, hobbies, activities previously enjoyed

• Change in personality: Sad, withdrawn, irritable, anxious, tired, indecisive, apathetic

• Change in behavior: Can’t concentrate on school, work, routine tasks

• Change in sleep patterns: insomnia, often with early waking or oversleeping, nightmares

• Change in eating habits: Loss of appetite and weight, or overeating

• Fear of losing control: Acting erratically, harming self or others

• Low self-esteem: Feeling worthless, shame, overwhelming guilt, self-hatred, “everyone would be better off without me”

• No hope for the future: Believing things will never get better; that nothing will ever change

Memorial Epworth Center’s Emergency Services are open and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. If you are experiencing a crisis, please call our Admissions Office at 574.647.8400.

If you know of a child or teen exhibiting the above warning signs, you can also contact Beacon Medical Group Behavioral South Bend (574.647.8470) and Elkhart (574.523.3347).

Beacon Medical Group Behavioral Health is an outpatient behavioral health practice committed to compassionate mental health care for you and your family. Our dedicated caregivers provide psychiatry services for children, adolescents, adults and families, as well as psychiatric evaluations, medication management, Ketamine therapy, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a groundbreaking service that can change the lives of patients.