Checking In: Suicide Prevention Month
How are you doing? Are you ok?
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a time to talk openly about mental health, eliminate the stigma, and remind us all that mental health is health – and it matters. Next week marks the official awareness week, and it’s an important opportunity to check in with ourselves and those around us.
Mental healthcare is deeply personal to me. My own family has been impacted by suicide, and I know many others in our community have experienced similar loss. Based on CDC and SAMHSA data, in 2023, 12.9 million people in the United States seriously thought about suicide, 3.7 million made a plan for it, and 1.5 million attempted suicide. That year, someone died by suicide every 11 minutes.
The risk of suicide for medical professionals is higher than the general public; specific
ally, medical students are three times more likely to die by suicide than their non-medical peers.
What can we do? The message from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which launched the September prevention and awareness campaign, is simple: Start a conversation. Be the difference. Even one conversation – asking someone how they are doing and being truly able to listen – can save a life. NAMI has a great online toolkit full of ways to start the conversation, social media posts to share, and graphics to include on your own websites.
As an educator, I try to extend this philosophy to the classroom by including a slide at the end of my presentations with information about crisis hot lines and campus mental health resources. This way, learners both see the resources in class and have them available in their study materials, making it convenient for them and as normal for me at the end of class as telling them to drive safe or stay cool in the summer heat.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please know that help is available. You can call or text 988, the national suicide and crisis lifeline, anytime. There are also state and local crisis lines and school and workplace assistance programs. You are not alone.
Whether you are having a tough time or suspect someone you know is, please talk to someone – a hotline, a mental health professional, a friend, a colleague, or a family member.
Let’s keep asking each other: How are you doing?
And let’s mean it.
By Claire Horner, J.D., M.A., HEC-C, associate professor, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy and Clinical ethics program director at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
