Elkhart mental health professionals are planning a seminar to help parents prevent youth suicide. It’s a topic that experts say can no longer be avoided.
Teen suicide rates were already rising heading into the pandemic. Four years later, with all the turmoil happening these days, from political polarization to anxiety around the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, parents might feel especially unsure about their teens’ mental health.
Care providers and advocates plan a free seminar, “Getting Real: Honest conversations about youth mental health and suicide prevention.” The Oct. 9 event at Ivy Tech in Goshen is presented by the Elkhart County Suicide Prevention Coalition, The SOURCE, which is part of Oaklawn, Mental Health Awareness Michiana, and Elkhart Community Corrections.
Event organizer Anna Sawatsky hopes the seminar at least will help dispel a myth.
“If I ask my child, are you thinking about hurting yourself? Are you thinking about killing yourself, we worry that we might plant an idea or that it might trigger something. And really we know that that’s not the case. That children, youth, teens, any of us, need to be asked, want to be asked, and we probably need to ask it that directly if we are concerned.”
Sawatsky says the coalition offers a lot of help to parents but they hope they bring their kids, ages 12 and up, along to this seminar.
“We’re really hoping to get youth and families present and attending this event, and talking together.”
