Credit: (Troy Benson via Flickr)People across New Jersey are being taught to recognize the warning signs of suicide, with a particular focus on supporting young people of color and LGBTQ+ youth, through a training program that aims to prevent a crisis.
The program, run by the Mental Health Association in New Jersey, coaches friends, family members, neighbors or “anyone and everyone” in communities on how to ask a young person if they are thinking about suicide and how to persuade a young person to stay alive during an emergency mental health crisis. Training also tells people how to refer youth to mental health professionals, according to Jaime Angelini, the statewide director of suicide prevention, crisis response and special projects at the nonprofit organization.
Learning to identify warning signs and respond quickly stressed by students, advocates and mental health providers
The program, called A Focus on Youth Suicide Prevention, is being funded for the second consecutive year through a $25,000 grant from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
The training comes as young people across the state battle a mental health crisis heightened by the ongoing pandemic, and as some advocates renew calls for statewide antibullying measures in light of a teenager’s death by suicide last month in Ocean County. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 22% of surveyed LGBTQ+ high school students attempted suicide during the past year, while 6% of heterosexual students attempted suicide.
Interrupting a crisis to prevent it
The type of training offered by the nonprofit is considered an “emergency mental health intervention” for people who are considering suicide and aims to identify and interrupt the crisis and direct a person to the proper care.
The grant in 2022 from Horizon allowed the group to offer training to 746 people in various organizations, Angelini said. “By expanding the training opportunity to additional gatekeepers and offering bilingual sessions, we widen the safety net of people who can recognize suicide risk and warning signs and offer help and support to young people in our community,” she added.
A major portion of the increased funding goes to a new hotline
A gatekeeper is someone who is in a position to recognize a crisis and warning signs that someone may be contemplating suicide. Parents, friends, neighbors and teachers, among many other community members, can learn to serve as gatekeepers.
The training, which lasts for 90 minutes, teaches participants how to ask someone if they are considering suicide, according to Angelini. Tips include not waiting to ask key questions and being persistent if a person is reluctant to talk.
Nonjudgmental questioning
“We show people ways to not ask it (a question about suicidal ideation). We don’t want to ask it with judgment,” said Angelini. People who ask the question with judgment sometimes say it out of fear, she noted.
Suicidal ideation is a problem that is acutely felt among LGBTQ+ youth and young people of color. Nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide, and LGBTQ+ youth of color reported higher rates of attempted suicide than their white peers, according to a 2022 national survey on LGBTQ+ youth mental health from The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is a California-based organization whose mission is to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.
Along with the new number there will be additional resources to help people in crisis
“Black transgender and nonbinary young people find themselves at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, and they face unique stressors and challenges related to both racism and transphobia in society,” Price said. “Increased experiences of rejection, discrimination and violence can compound and produce poor mental health outcomes.” Price uses “she/they” as personal pronouns.
But mental health professionals say that more can be done to address the needs of young people of color and LGBTQ+ youth.
“The bottom line is that to address the rising rates of youth suicide, we can’t shy away from talking about the racial injustice and anti-LGBTQ violence that prevent young people from living their fullest lives,” said Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, the chief medical officer at The JED Foundation, a national nonprofit that aims to protect emotional health and prevent suicide among teenagers and young adults across the country.
“We have to stand against discriminatory laws like the Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill and against the erasure of accurate teaching about race in our country — these make young people feel othered and invisibilized,” Erickson-Schroth added.
Other paths to healing
Suicide prevention training is just one approach that advocates across the state are using to address youth mental health.
“So our self-healing communities, we have one in Asbury called Asbury Park Healing Together, and we are currently working in Camden as well,” said D. Belinfanti, a project manager and trainer at Garden State Equality who uses she/they pronouns. “They have community luncheons, community cafes … and they’re doing the same thing, creating spaces for families within the community to experience something new, to experience how to regulate their emotions (and) their children’s emotions,” Belinfanti said.
Self-healing communities seek to address intergenerational health and social problems by investing in the people who are most at risk and reducing and preventing adverse childhood experiences, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. They also allow communities “to generate new cultural norms” to improve health, safety and productivity for current and future generations. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides funding to NJ Spotlight News.
As for Angelini and the Mental Health Association, they hope to train 720 people in suicide prevention with the new funding.
“To do this work, to take this on, you have to be courageous and push yourself through those uncomfortable conversations because we know they can be lifesaving,” Angelini said.
