Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
NAMI Contra Costa’s Effort to Take Action with Suicide Awareness and Preventative Approaches
Speakers
- Leo Li
- Tristan Siebold
- Naomi Gashaw
- NAMI CC Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Staff
Summary
September was Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. NAMI Contra Costa focused on suicide prevention in all programs and for all age groups. For our September General Meeting, we focused on the strategic approaches NAMI Contra Costa used to take action with suicide awareness and prevention. Transitional Age Youth Support Group team members Leo Li and Tristan Siebold shared available programs and supports. Ending the Silence was an informative presentation that taught students, parents, and educators in middle and high school about the warning signs and what actions to take if a loved one is showing signs of mental illness.
Staff member Naomi Gashaw, who also volunteered with the Contra Costa County Crisis Center, shared information about her work and the efforts underway to support those expressing hopelessness.
Remembrance Park
We shared what the City of Walnut Creek had put in place at Remembrance Park. Remembrance Park is a passive park. It had benches with plaques that carried the names of young people who had gone too soon — a beautiful place initiated by friends of the Miles Hall family. There was also a memorial brick installation managed by the Miles Hall Foundation. Many of the park amenities were funded in part by donations of community members as a tribute to their loved ones.
NAMI Contra Costa FaithNet – 2nd Annual Prevention Awareness Month Event
NAMI Contra Costa FaithNet held its 2nd Annual Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Event, “Know the Signs, Remembering Those We’ve Lost,” at Contra Loma Regional Park, 1200 Frederickson Ln, Antioch (near the Lagoon area) on September 17, 2022, at 9:30 am.
We kicked off the event with invited guests Janet Costa and Candace Wade from the Contra Costa Office for Consumer Empowerment. They announced that the Service Provider Individualized Recovery Intensive Training (SPIRIT) program was currently accepting applications for the 2023 SPIRIT Program as well as peers who had navigated behavioral health services. This course taught skills needed to work as a family/parent/peer provider in the behavioral health field. The focus was on hope, resiliency, and empowerment to provide peer support insight for parents, family members, caregivers, and peers in behavioral health.