Cuyahoga County Just in Time Training

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

988 offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. That could be: thoughts of suicide, mental health or substance use crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. People can call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for themselves or if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support.

September is Suicide Prevention Month.

Suicide Prevention Day is the 10th of September.

Each year nearly 30,000 people in the United States die by suicide. The devastated family and friends they leave behind are known as “survivors.” There are millions of survivors who are trying to cope with this heartbreaking loss.

Survivors often experience a wide range of grief reactions, including some or all of the following:

Shock is a common immediate reaction.
You may feel numb or disoriented, and may have trouble concentrating.
Symptoms of depression, including disturbed sleep, loss of appetite intense sadness, and lack of energy.
Anger towards the deceased, another family member, a therapist, or yourself.
Relief, particularly if the suicide followed a long and difficult mental illness.
Guilt, including thinking, “If only I had.…”

These feelings usually diminish over time, as ther ability to cope develops and one begins to heal.

Just as people can die of heart disease or cancer, people can die as a consequence of mental illness. Ninety percent of all people who die by suicide have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death (most often depression or bipolar disorder).

Suicide is almost always complicated, resulting from a combination of painful suffering, desperate hopelessness, and underlying psychiatric illness.