Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And the rate has increased dramatically in recent decades.
We chose to focus on the people who are left behind after a suicide to try to prevent further suicide contagion, or the idea that specific ways of discussing suicide can cause others to attempt suicide.
I interviewed Reese Hornick, an Alter High School senior who lost a friend to suicide when Reese was 13 and her friend was 12. Reese has spent her life since then talking about mental health and strengthening her own school’s Hope Squad, an increasingly common idea in high schools that helps kids deal with mental health.
“There’s people that are truly going through these things, and you don’t know that unless you sit down and have a conversation with them,” Reese told me.
Sam‘s interview with Denise Meine-Graham of Postvention Consulting, who lost her son to suicide in 2012, focused on finding resources for those who are left behind by suicide. Meine-Graham said connecting with others who had been impacted by suicide helped her as she grieved her son.
“Sometimes suicide is preventable, but we want to be careful in saying that because on the one hand, we don’t want to leave people that have been impacted by a loss feeling like they failed in some way because they didn’t,” Meine-Graham said.
Finally, several teenagers shared their own perspectives on the mental health crisis among kids. Meadowdale High School journalism students, along with a New Lebanon sophomore and a Beavercreek eighth grader, all shared their perspectives.
As we wrap up this project next month, we’d love to hear what you think. Email me at eileen.mcclory@coxinc.com or Sam at samantha.wildow@coxinc.com.