Suicide Awareness And Prevention With Warm Springs Counseling Center
Colbi Twiss • September 5, 2023
September is Suicide Awareness Month. Learn the signs and how you can prevent and support those at risk on Idaho Today.
Somethings to know/do after someone has lost their life by suicide:
- Each person grieves in their own way. There is no standard linear grieving process.
- Be honest about what happened.
- Allow for all the emotions, which there will be a mix: shock, anger, sadness, fear, regret, guilt, curiosity, and anxiety.
- Talk openly about suicide. Talking about suicide does not encourage it. In fact, talking about suicide, asking someone how they are doing and if their suicidal reduces the risk.
- Find ways to memorialize those who have passed.
- Ask what the person who is grieving what they need to feel supported.
Red Flags: When seen, talk. Talking can save lives. These would be changes you notice:
- Withdrawing from social things, grades change, withdrawing from friends, family
- Any unexplained significant changes in behavior, including mood swings
- Not caring about their personal appearance/hygiene
- Exhausted, bored or lose interest in school, activities, hobbies-they previously engaged in
- Talk about death, suicide, and/or self-harm often
- Express feeling the need to be perfect, stressed about making mistakes, feeling like a failure
FREE Resources
Call or text 988, the crisis and suicide lifeline—24/7 –You can reach out to them if you have a friend or family member you are worried about and not sure how to help.
https://www.mentallycovered.org/
Suicide Resources: Understanding suicide and supporting children:
Suicide-Resources.pdf (dougy.org)
Tips for Teens Who Are Grieving:
Tips-for-Teens-Who-are-Grieving_2023-03-17-201232.pdf (dougy.org)
Children, Teens and Suicide Loss-Book
https://dougybookstore.org/collections/after-suicide
Counseling Services for Teens and Children
TEGNA Foundation awards the Children's Home Society with $3 thousand dollars to help mental health
🌟 Celebrate Giving Tuesday with Elementary Watson! 🌟 This segment highlighting the incredible power of community and generosity! We salute caregivers who dedicate their lives to supporting children, youth, adults with special conditions, and aging loved ones. 💖👨👩👧👦 🎙️ Dr. JoEllen Watson and Sheepdog will welcome four inspiring guests from two amazing organizations making a real difference in the lives of caregivers. Discover heartwarming stories and learn how helping others can empower everyone to live their best lives. 🌍✨ Click here to listen what is new at the Children's Home, listen in at 26 mins and 40 seconds. Enjoy!
Children's Home Counseling Services shares the long road it took to get here
The Children's Home Society of Idaho has partnered with the Warm Springs Care Farm to offer nature-based and animal-assisted therapies.
The several-million-dollar project is in its first phase out of four. Author: Abby Davis Published: 8:49 PM MDT May 14, 2024 Updated: 8:49 PM MDT May 14, 2024 BOISE, Idaho — One of Idaho's oldest community resources — the Children's Home Society of Idaho — is undergoing much-needed renovations. “Because of focusing on providing the service to the low-income families and making sure that every kid actually gets a chance to be served, we had to put aside major maintenance of the building," Executive Director Anselme Sadiki said. The Children's Home opened in 1908 as an orphanage, he said. Around 1970, it became a temporary foster care home before transitioning to an outpatient mental health clinic for children ages 2 to 18. Sadiki said they serve at least 90 kids a day and allow everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, to get help. The children's home offers a variety of mental, emotional and behavioral services. Because of growing demand, he said they even had to open up another location in Meridian. "Idaho is kind of ridiculously known for not having sufficient resources for children's mental health," Sadiki said. "It's rare to find actually an organization that solely focuses on children." He said they started a capital campaign about a year and a half ago to raise money to renovate the historic Warm Springs Avenue building in Boise. They are currently in phase one of four. Teal Point Custom Homes is leading the project. Founder Chomo Santana said crews will get the building up to seismic standards, replace the rood, completely redo the interior, etc. To preserve the historic value of the building, he said the building will look the exact same on the outside. “It definitely goes in stages; [ it's] a very unique project. Very methodical. But we have a good game plan for it," Santana said. "If we can have some input on this project and deliver a project that can stand here for another 100 years, we're very proud of that.” Annika Klein, who said the Children's Home helped save her life as a teenager, said she cannot wait for the plan to become a reality. "The Children's Home kind of bridges that gap between needing care and actually getting it," she said. "So, seeing steps taken to ensure that that extends into the future is really promising and hopeful." The Children's Home has raised just over $2 million for renovations. That money came from grants and community members. However, they are still about $1.5 million short. People can donate online . Santana said they will renovate as money comes in. He thinks the project will take about a year.
The topic of suicide is a difficult discussion for most parents to have with their children, but it is also a very crucial conversation.
A traumatic brain injury impacts more then a person’s physical health, it also impacts their mental and emotional health. It’s a relationship that not many people are aware of and it’s impact can be felt through-out an entire family unit. It’s something that counselor Todd Williams from Warm Springs Counseling Center knows firsthand. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and the following months after suffered greatly from the mental impact on his emotions and personality. ‘It was hard on my wife and six sons,’ said Todd in a conversation with Idaho Today’s Mellisa Paul. Williams was on the show to help promote National Brain Injury Awareness Month. To learn more watch this video from Idaho Today.
After multiple teen suicides struck the Boise community this year, the Warm Springs Counseling Center is hosting an event, giving people the space to mourn.
Boise Schools are one district seeing what they say is an alarming number of suicides recently.
The Holiday season is a time for families and friends to gather and celebrate! But…it can also be a source of frustration and stress for those trying to navigate difficult family dynamics.
