March 6, 2025 • 30 mins
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is a voluntary health organization that advocates for research and education around suicide. https://afsp.org/chapter/western-pennsylvania
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. Well, good morning. My name is Johnny Hartwell,
I'm your host, and my guest this morning is Doug
Bishop of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention the Western
Pennsylvania Chapter. Good to see you, get Doug. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's always a touchy subject, but I think it's a
vital subject that we talk about. And do you want
to tell your story before we go ahead and talk
about some of the things that are happening with your foundation.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. I got involved because I lost my son to
suicide back in January of fourteen. Really really difficult. You
can't even describe it quite honestly. It's just riptio. Part
healing process is very very difficult. The grief is really
(00:54):
really well, it's called complicated grief because it's very complicated.
But that's why I got involved. Excuse me. What I
did is I attended the first walk that I was
able to attend, which was down at high Mark Stadium
near Station Square, and just felt very comfortable there because
(01:19):
there were so many other people going through what I
was going through, and that was extremely helpful. Raised some
money as well, which was not necessarily planned but came
from friends and family and co workers and business associates,
et cetera. Ended up actually being the number one fundraiser
(01:41):
that year, which just totally blew me away. I was
not I honestly was not even trying to raise anything significant,
but the love came out, if you will, and it
just it just blew me away.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So when did you join the foundation?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I then attended are was called in an National Survivors
of Suicide Loss Day, which is a healing day for
people that have lost somebody to suicide. And it's like
they were reading my mind. Things that were said that
day were thoughts that were racing through my mind on
(02:15):
a regular day, regular basis, And again, just felt really
comfortable in that setting. People were very open, very talkative,
very understanding, the therapeutic, very therapeutic, and they were looking
for board members. So at the end of the day,
I said, Hey, I'd really like to be involved, and
they said, well, because of the walk and all the
(02:38):
other you raised, we know who you are and a
retired CPA. So I got the lucky position of treasurer,
which is fine, which is fine. I enjoy doing it.
But that's how I got involved.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I don't think you ever recover completely from the loss,
you know, but you know, the fellowship and the communication,
I'm sure that helps.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh absolutely. And one of the other things that I do,
rather than just being on the board and looking over
the numbers all the time, is I'm involved in our
loss and healing program called Healing Conversation. So I talk
several times, well more than that, probably half a dozen
times a year to individual parents that have lost their
(03:24):
child so that I can help them walk through that
grief a little bit. Just for them to have somebody
knowing what they're going through is like me attending Survivor's
Day where everybody knew what we were all going through.
So I help help parents get through that lost a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well, I'm having a tough time coming up with questions
because it's a sensitive subject. So what do you say?
What advice do you give the parents who attend your speeches?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What they're normally just one on ones. So I talk
to a mother or a father or both together, and
it's normally a phone call or maybe a zoom meeting
something like that. I try to listen mostly let them talk,
but sometimes that's hard to get them to do. But
(04:14):
once I start talking and start talking about what I
went through and then they start, you can see them
nodding their heads, Yes, we're going through that, and then
eventually they start talking. And I just think it's just
the feelings that you're going through are all over the map.
I mean, it's just everything imaginable. There's all kinds of
(04:37):
grief issues that you're dealing with. You're angry, you're angry
at yourself, you're angry at the person you lost. You've
got sometimes a sense of relief, Like you hear about
people caring for their elderly parents and now they don't
have to do that anymore. Well, caring for somebody that's
got mental health problems is a lot of work sometimes
(04:58):
and so that's a tough one to get through. But
a lot of people nod their heads, Yes, I know
what you're talking about, and so just making those kind
of connections I think is helpful for them. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
One of the reasons why you got involved with the
suicide prevention is the walk, So you have a number
of these coming up in there you couple of weeks,
so we do let's remind people of what exactly is
going wrong.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Without funds, we can't do anything. So we raise all
of our money, almost all of our money through grassroots efforts,
which is walks where people dig into their pockets and
help us. So we've got actually nine campus walks in
the area coming up in the next two months.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Now you're the Western Pennsylvania branch. You cover twenty five counties.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Twenty five counties, so most of these are fairly local.
The big one coming up, the big kahuna, if you will,
is University of Pittsburgh pitt So on March twenty second,
So that's our biggest one. We would love to see
as many people there as possible, so if you get
a chance to turn out, these are almost every week.
(06:07):
Point Park is the next week on the twenty seventh.
Waynesburg University a little bit out of the Allegheny Carrey
County area, but it's on the twenty ninth, that's a Saturday.
And Point Park, by the way, that's on a Thursday
in the afternoon. Robert Morris is on the fifth, that's
a Saturday morning. Duke Caine is also on the fifth.
(06:30):
A little bit later that same day, Laroche has one
on the eleventh that's a Friday at noon, Slippery Rock
on the twelfth, that's a Saturday at ten Chatham University
on the thirteenth at ten, and Penn State University the
Fayette campus has one on the twenty fifth, which is
a Friday at eleven am.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Now is there a reason behind, you know, focusing on
the colleges and universities.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
There's a probably multiple reasons. One is the suicide rates
in that age group are stunning. They're higher than I
think most people realize. Anytime I bring this up, people
are shocked. But if you look, I'm going to start
at the bottom category, which is ten to fourteen. That'll
(07:19):
be more middle school and high school kids. But it's
the number two leading cause of death in that age group.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And is that because of the pressure of college or
being that age presents a number of problems?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, being that age, I mean we all remember middle school.
I think it might be the toughest year sometimes, So
why at that age is hard to say. You know,
there's never one reason. There's always multiple reasons. One of
them typically is somebody struggling with some mental health issues
(07:54):
and then you know, other things happen. It could be
multiple reasons, you know, for it, it could be you
hear a lot about bullying, sure, that could be part
of it. It could be a loss of a family
member and they just can't take the loss. You know,
there could be multiple things. It's hard to pinpoint it,
(08:16):
but it's yeah, it's there's so much anxiety in those
age groups ten to fourteen and fifteen to twenty four,
even in the twenty five to thirty four age group,
there's so many kids with anxiety. It's kind of frightening.
But if you look at the fifteen to twenty four
age group, it's the number three cause of death in
(08:36):
a fifteen to twenty four year old kids. You know,
six thousand of them died last year from suicide. Twenty
five to thirty four, it's the number two cause of death.
Over eighty six hundred people took their lives in that
age group.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And is what is your organization doing. Obviously you do
a lot to help get the word out for suicide prevention,
what is the message that your foundation really wants to
get across.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That we can reduce the number, you know, the goal
is zero. That's the goal. But what we're really trying
to do is get that number as close to zero
as we possibly can, as quickly as we can, and
that's through multiple ways. We do a lot of education programs,
So if anybody's any of the listeners are looking for
(09:29):
education programs, please reach out. We'll put them on really
to anybody anywhere, anytime, and we don't charge for them
at all. So that's one way to get the word out.
We do a lot of those in schools, We do
a lot of those in communities. Would be happy to
present them in workplaces as well. We do that. We're
(09:51):
also doing advocacy. We're in Harrisburg. We're going to Harrisburg
in I think it's late a April. I'm sorry, DC
in late April, and I think Harrisburg is in June.
So we're meeting with politicians all the time to try
to get laws changed. Nine to eight eight was a
big one that we were pushing hard to get to happen,
(10:12):
which is the nine to one one for mental health.
So you can reach out to nine eight eight for
mental health reasons and you will get somebody that understands
mental health and help you through the thoughts you're having
Right now.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We're talking with Doug B. Doug Bishop of the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He mentioned a couple of the
walks here in the Pittsburgh area or actually western Pennsylvania area.
You can get more information on the website at af
SP dot org. What are some of the warning signs
for suicide?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Generally for most people, you're going to see things like
they're lethargic, they might be sleeping extremely long hours. You
just notice something's not quite right. Some of the things
might be what they say, like, you know, I don't
(11:08):
want to be a burden. Those kind of things. You
can see in actions they start giving away their things.
Those are signs. What you want to do when you
see some of those is, you know, if you're a
gun owner, you want to make sure your guns, your
firearms are locked and safe, and the same thing with
(11:31):
the ammunition.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
You know, that's a controversial topic, but it's probably you know.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Number one methodology.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Methodology, Yes, it is the number one methodology. And again
this is sort of a shocking statistic.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You also have to be aware of what your kids
or parents are loved one is going through. If they're
going through a breakup or maybe a health issue, or
problems at school, or you know a number of.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
A number of things that can just again, as I
said earlier, if they've got some mental health issues, these
are things that kind of you know, push that a
little bit and there's too many pushes and things start
falling apart. So you need to be aware of that.
You need to know what your kids are doing, what
they're up to, and pay attention a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
You and I come from a generation where in a
mental health issues, we didn't talk No, we didn't talk
about it. Well, it's gotten better, but you know, there's
always room for improvement.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It's gotten better. I think in the younger age groups specifically,
they talk about it more often. I think there's just
so much anxiety out there. I think some of that
might have to do with social media, maybe too much
cell phone usage, so you don't really talk to your friends.
Your text to your friends, and I always say, those
(12:46):
aren't real conversations, those are texts. So talking with your
friend about you know, your struggles, just hey i'm having
a bad time here. Being able to do that is important.
But on the other side of it, if you're on
the receiving end of those conversations. It's great to listen
and it's great to help your friend. But what we're
(13:06):
finding is a lot of that age group is open
to hearing about it and talking about it, but they
don't always know what.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To do or what to say, or what to say.
Sometimes it's okay, let me ask you something. So we
talked about some of the warning signs of suicide. Once
you see one or two of those, how do you
bring that subject up?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Sometimes you just slightly bring it up to ask somebody
if they're considering taking their life. You're not going to
push them into that by asking the question that's been
researched that's the truth. So just flat out asking somebody, hey,
you're really down, you really seem depressed, and like, are
(13:48):
you thinking about taking your life? It's not a horrible
question to ask, and more often than not, the recipient
of that question will probably feel relief that somebody's actually
wanting to talk about it because it's in their head.
But they don't want to talk about it right because
that stigma is still there. But if you can get
(14:10):
them to talk about it, that's the first step. That's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Talk a little more about the stigma.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
If we can remove the stigma, we would see a
rapid decrease. I'm sure of that. And the stigma is
just people don't want to talk about mental health. I
think the word mental health bothers me a bit. I
think it should just be health. Let's just talk about
it like any other health problem. You know, people have
(14:41):
blood pressure issues, you even die about.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh we can't talk about blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Oh we can't talk about blood pressure, but we do
a lot. Yeah, but we don't talk about depression. We
don't talk about mental health.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Why.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I think for men, a lot of men think, oh,
you know, you're soft. It's a sign of weakness. It's
a sign of weakness. No, guys, listen, it's a sign
of strength to admit that you've got a mental health problem.
So please, if you do.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Talk about it, women aren't you know, and women too.
But at the same time, everybody, women should be aware
that men have a really tough time talking about our feelings. Correct,
we've gotten a little bit better through the years, but
not that. But we still are very reluctant to admit
that we are we are having issues, and we're afraid that,
you know, maybe a significant other or you know, a
(15:37):
coworker is going to use that against us, and it's
something that really we need. We need to get through
that stigma. We need to be able to talk about
our feelings.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
In one hundred and thirty Yes, yes, we need to
talk about it. I mean, one of our educational programs
is Talk Saves Lives.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
All right, I noticed that that was one of the
questions I had, so tell us about that program.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, that that is sort of our most largely asked
program for us to put on. And that's likely because it,
you know, hits across all all the populations, but we
do have some specific ones. We have them for the workplace,
we have them for the LGBTQ community, we have them
(16:22):
for the black community. So there's lots of different versions
out there, but this particular program we talk a little
bit about mental health in general and then get into
the specific of depression in suicide, and we talk about
the signs. We talk about, you know, reaching out for
(16:43):
help to nine eight eight, you know, trying to get
medication from a psychiatrist, talk, therapy, all of those things
that will help you get through some of those issues.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Nine eight eight, that's the number to call if you're
feeling you know, absolutely those warning science have you? Do
you see that as a positive stats? Are you seeing
positive that?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, what we're hearing from the folks that were in
nine ninety eight is that the there's a huge increase
in phone calls from the very beginning and a decrease
on the nine to one one side. So now we're
getting more of the mental health calls actually going directly
to nine eight eight, and all the other health issues
(17:29):
go to nine one one or emergency issues go to
nine one one. So yes, it's it's it's great. But
with all the funding cuts that we're now seeing out there,
we don't want to see any funding cuts of nine
eight eight. We don't want to see funding cuts of
Medicare Medicaid because there's a lot of folks with mental
(17:50):
health issues relying on both of those. And so call
your congressman.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
We're talking with Doug Bishop of the American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention, the Western P'savania Chapter. I do want to
remind people we do not directly provide mental health or
crisis services. Please consult a professional, but if you want
more information, the website is AFSP dot org. I have
a cut. I want to play from your website. But
(18:17):
let's talk about some of the walks that are happening.
And if somebody wants to participate in the walk, they
can just go to the website.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right right, right, They're all listed on the website. So
all the campus walks are coming up through March through April.
So we've got nine different campus walks that you can attend,
so there's plenty of chances there. We also have the
community walks in the fall. We have right now five
set for the fall, and those are generally September and October.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
All right, this is from their website. If you want
more information on the walks, the website is AFSP dot org.
This is from the website. Here is doctor Christine and Espositosmithers.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
There's something very important that parents need to know and
that there is a strong connection between adolescent alcohol use
and suicidality, where with regular drinking come many other problems
like family arguments and problems in school, and problems across
a whole other host of areas, which then increases risk
for depression, which in turn increases risk for suicidality. What
(19:27):
a parent should do first if they have any inkling
that their child is suicidal or a friend of their
child as suicidal, is that they must absolutely must take
the suicidality seriously and they must act on it, because
sometimes you don't have very long before a teenager will
move from thoughts to action, and every suicidal statement must
(19:47):
be taken seriously, and parents must get access to mental
health treatment and mental health evaluation for their children. With
my work, I've brought a strong focus on including the
family into the treatment. The family struggles very much like
the teenager does. And when you love your child a
great deal and you see that your child is struggling,
(20:08):
it's very very hard for you as well. And so
I feel that it's very important to include parents and
family members and the treatment to provide them with the
support that they need to help their teenager get better
and also help them learn different types of skills and
strategies to best help that happen. When I include parents
in treatment programs, I think of them as coaches. Right,
So when teenagers are in the therapy room with us,
(20:30):
it's one hour a week or maybe two hours a week,
but parents are with them the rest of the time.
So I feel that it's very, very important to teach
parents much of the same things that we're teaching the teenagers,
so that the parents can help the teenagers use it
outside of session and serve as their coaches.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Doctor Christine and was talked about the alcohol use with adolescence.
Is that just one of the warning signs of possible.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I would say, yes, you should look at that seriously.
And I think what she said one of the comments
that she made there was take every comment seriously. Yeah,
some some I've heard heard people, Oh they're just seeking attention.
Don't ever think that I was going to bring that
up because you could be wrong. Yeah, and you don't
(21:17):
want to be wrong. So you want to again alcohol, Yes,
that's again she said alcohol, and then issues with the
family and yeah, so there's again multiple things, but I
would absolutely consider that a problem.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
A lot of the walks that you have coming up
in March and April are kind of focused on collegiate level,
But you know, what are some of the schools, high schools,
what are they doing to bring up you know, suicide prevention.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Actually, there was a law change hoof maybe five or
so years ago that is now requiring mental health topics
to be discussed in the schools and so that's a plus.
We love to see that. So they are talking about it.
And we have one of our programs that was used
(22:10):
to talk about it in many many schools. We presented
it to numerous schools in the area when the first
when the law change came out. So it's called More
Than Sad, and it deals pretty much in the target
zone of like middle school, junior high But we also
have another program called It's Real that deals more in
(22:33):
the high school more like a senior year going into
the college years and the college age kids. And that
actually that particular program, It's Real, it's actually six different
students talking about their mental health struggles as they're attending college.
So you can see firsthand, you know, the video and
(22:55):
the audio directly from them of what their struggles are.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It's that program available on the webs.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Uh No, but we put it on. We'll put it
on for any school that wants it, okay. And so
if this school wants it, and what what is the message?
What is the messaging that you present to the kids? Again,
it's real, It's okay, talk saves lives, talk about everything
and bringing up and bring it up to your friends.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
And the stigma you need it by talking your breaking.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Down the stigma.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Absolutely, that is you know there's something that that I'm
I'm glad that we're having that conversation. And it's a
tough conversation to have, but it's vital. It's vital.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
But the more we talk about it, the easier it
will get, it'll be more commonplace. So yes, we talk
about it. So we don't just present that video. We
present information prior show the video, lots of talk and
discussion afterwards, so you know, that's the idea of the
video is to get the kids to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So your foundation, what is the what is the number
one question you get from people who are.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Looking for many times they're looking for therapists, and I
wish that I could give them our list of therapists,
but we don't have our list. It's just too difficult
to do. But if you are looking for a therapist,
our general suggestion is Psychology Today magazine has a website
(24:20):
and it has a search and sort function in it
that's fantastic, so you can find somebody in that direction.
Same thing with psychiatrists. We wish we could offer some suggestions,
but again it's it just gets very difficult with insurance issues,
et cetera. That's probably the number one question is can
you find my child of therapist? We wish we could.
(24:44):
Other other issues would be things like, you know, things
you're you're asking me, like what are the what are
the signs? What do we look for? You know, what
do we do once we see some signs? Et cetera.
Those are the bigger questions, but we're we're out there
trying to put as much education programs on as possible.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Do you get questions like is it better to have
tough love or soft love? You know what? You know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Right, We do get that a little bit, But I
think that's so difficult to answer. It depends on the relationship,
depends on you know, who you're talking about. If you're
talking about your kids, you know, every kid's different. You know,
they don't come with instruction medias, so we don't know
how to build them and put them together. So you
(25:35):
just have to kind of figure that one out, you know,
and maybe that's something you know, it wouldn't hurt to
have family therapy, you know, go to therapy with your
child if that's where the issue is. Or with your
spouse if that's where the issue is, go together. There
are family therapists out there for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Now you have a number of walks coming up in
the in the western Pennsylvania are coming up and we're
going to talk about that in a second. But if
somebody wants to volunteer or make a donation, I'm sure
you get a lot of people who are interested in
helping out.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Absolutely, we're always looking for volunteers. So again you can
go to our website and sign up there if you
we we have regular meetings. If you can get on
our mailing list, we will give you a list of
you know, the upcoming volunteer dates where we you know,
gather together and let everybody know, Okay, here's here's an
(26:29):
event coming up that we're a little short. We need
some people here and etsatura and we're going to try
to make those a little bit more casual and fun
talking about suicide prevention. But yeah, we're going to have more.
We want to have more and more connections with the volunteers.
That's important.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And then when it comes to advocacy, what do you suggest.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
We we we always look for people to go to
d C and Harrisburg with us. So we're getting that
group together right now.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I think is always an issue. And and I know
you you look for the state, but you know what
else can you What do you want them? What do
you need people to do?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
We need them for advocacy. We need them to go
to Harrisburg and d C talk to the politicians. We'll
have it scripted out as far as you know what
the what the buzzwords are, what may be laws that
we're looking at that they're talking about to get changed
or added. Those those are the things that we need.
We need laws. We need more mental health care. We
(27:34):
need more insurance dollars towards mental health. We need to
make sure therapists are able to get paid a living
wage because that's a problem. So many therapists just can't
make enough money, and then we just we lose therapists.
So it's there's just so many issues that we need
a lot of changes.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
We only have a couple of minutes left, so let's
kind of recap some of the walks that are happening
in Western Pa. Where they are and how do they
sign up sure.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
The upcoming campus walks. I'll give you the list real quick.
And you can look on our website and they will
have all the dates, all the times at exact locations.
But upcoming we have pitt Point Park Waynesburg, Robert Morris, Duquine, Laroche,
Slippery Rock, Chatham, and penn State Fayette. We also have
(28:26):
a new walk that is not a campus walk coming
up in April. It's the construction hike for Hope in Pennsylvania.
And there's actually two walks on the same day, one
in Harrisburg and one right here in Pittsburgh at Settler's Cabin.
And why is the construction We have discovered that that
is a very high risk industry. It's the second highest
(28:50):
risk for suicide industry, and they're very interested in bringing
that number down very much. So yeah, so we're looking
to grow that one. That's our first year with this
particular walk, so we're looking to grow that from here.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
If you need more information, go to their website. AFSP
dot org. That's a FSP dot org. Doug Bishop of
the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter,
it's a pleasure. Thank you so much. Good luck with
your walks.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Thank you so much, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
As always, if you have any comments, concerns, or an
idea for a future program, please email us from this
radio station's website. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much
for listening.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
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(30:05):
a wig needed from chemotherapy, along with support and prayer.
Learn more at our website hairpeace dot org. That's hair
p e ace E
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. Well, good morning. My name is Johnny Hartwell,
I'm your host, and my guest this morning is Doug
Bishop of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention the Western
Pennsylvania Chapter. Good to see you, get Doug. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's always a touchy subject, but I think it's a
vital subject that we talk about. And do you want
to tell your story before we go ahead and talk
about some of the things that are happening with your foundation.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. I got involved because I lost my son to
suicide back in January of fourteen. Really really difficult. You
can't even describe it quite honestly. It's just riptio. Part
healing process is very very difficult. The grief is really
(00:54):
really well, it's called complicated grief because it's very complicated.
But that's why I got involved. Excuse me. What I
did is I attended the first walk that I was
able to attend, which was down at high Mark Stadium
near Station Square, and just felt very comfortable there because
(01:19):
there were so many other people going through what I
was going through, and that was extremely helpful. Raised some
money as well, which was not necessarily planned but came
from friends and family and co workers and business associates,
et cetera. Ended up actually being the number one fundraiser
(01:41):
that year, which just totally blew me away. I was
not I honestly was not even trying to raise anything significant,
but the love came out, if you will, and it
just it just blew me away.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So when did you join the foundation?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I then attended are was called in an National Survivors
of Suicide Loss Day, which is a healing day for
people that have lost somebody to suicide. And it's like
they were reading my mind. Things that were said that
day were thoughts that were racing through my mind on
(02:15):
a regular day, regular basis, And again, just felt really
comfortable in that setting. People were very open, very talkative,
very understanding, the therapeutic, very therapeutic, and they were looking
for board members. So at the end of the day,
I said, Hey, I'd really like to be involved, and
they said, well, because of the walk and all the
(02:38):
other you raised, we know who you are and a
retired CPA. So I got the lucky position of treasurer,
which is fine, which is fine. I enjoy doing it.
But that's how I got involved.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I don't think you ever recover completely from the loss,
you know, but you know, the fellowship and the communication,
I'm sure that helps.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh absolutely. And one of the other things that I do,
rather than just being on the board and looking over
the numbers all the time, is I'm involved in our
loss and healing program called Healing Conversation. So I talk
several times, well more than that, probably half a dozen
times a year to individual parents that have lost their
(03:24):
child so that I can help them walk through that
grief a little bit. Just for them to have somebody
knowing what they're going through is like me attending Survivor's
Day where everybody knew what we were all going through.
So I help help parents get through that lost a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well, I'm having a tough time coming up with questions
because it's a sensitive subject. So what do you say?
What advice do you give the parents who attend your speeches?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What they're normally just one on ones. So I talk
to a mother or a father or both together, and
it's normally a phone call or maybe a zoom meeting
something like that. I try to listen mostly let them talk,
but sometimes that's hard to get them to do. But
(04:14):
once I start talking and start talking about what I
went through and then they start, you can see them
nodding their heads, Yes, we're going through that, and then
eventually they start talking. And I just think it's just
the feelings that you're going through are all over the map.
I mean, it's just everything imaginable. There's all kinds of
(04:37):
grief issues that you're dealing with. You're angry, you're angry
at yourself, you're angry at the person you lost. You've
got sometimes a sense of relief, Like you hear about
people caring for their elderly parents and now they don't
have to do that anymore. Well, caring for somebody that's
got mental health problems is a lot of work sometimes
(04:58):
and so that's a tough one to get through. But
a lot of people nod their heads, Yes, I know
what you're talking about, and so just making those kind
of connections I think is helpful for them. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
One of the reasons why you got involved with the
suicide prevention is the walk, So you have a number
of these coming up in there you couple of weeks,
so we do let's remind people of what exactly is
going wrong.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Without funds, we can't do anything. So we raise all
of our money, almost all of our money through grassroots efforts,
which is walks where people dig into their pockets and
help us. So we've got actually nine campus walks in
the area coming up in the next two months.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Now you're the Western Pennsylvania branch. You cover twenty five counties.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Twenty five counties, so most of these are fairly local.
The big one coming up, the big kahuna, if you will,
is University of Pittsburgh pitt So on March twenty second,
So that's our biggest one. We would love to see
as many people there as possible, so if you get
a chance to turn out, these are almost every week.
(06:07):
Point Park is the next week on the twenty seventh.
Waynesburg University a little bit out of the Allegheny Carrey
County area, but it's on the twenty ninth, that's a Saturday.
And Point Park, by the way, that's on a Thursday
in the afternoon. Robert Morris is on the fifth, that's
a Saturday morning. Duke Caine is also on the fifth.
(06:30):
A little bit later that same day, Laroche has one
on the eleventh that's a Friday at noon, Slippery Rock
on the twelfth, that's a Saturday at ten Chatham University
on the thirteenth at ten, and Penn State University the
Fayette campus has one on the twenty fifth, which is
a Friday at eleven am.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Now is there a reason behind, you know, focusing on
the colleges and universities.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
There's a probably multiple reasons. One is the suicide rates
in that age group are stunning. They're higher than I
think most people realize. Anytime I bring this up, people
are shocked. But if you look, I'm going to start
at the bottom category, which is ten to fourteen. That'll
(07:19):
be more middle school and high school kids. But it's
the number two leading cause of death in that age group.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And is that because of the pressure of college or
being that age presents a number of problems?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, being that age, I mean we all remember middle school.
I think it might be the toughest year sometimes, So
why at that age is hard to say. You know,
there's never one reason. There's always multiple reasons. One of
them typically is somebody struggling with some mental health issues
(07:54):
and then you know, other things happen. It could be
multiple reasons, you know, for it, it could be you
hear a lot about bullying, sure, that could be part
of it. It could be a loss of a family
member and they just can't take the loss. You know,
there could be multiple things. It's hard to pinpoint it,
(08:16):
but it's yeah, it's there's so much anxiety in those
age groups ten to fourteen and fifteen to twenty four,
even in the twenty five to thirty four age group,
there's so many kids with anxiety. It's kind of frightening.
But if you look at the fifteen to twenty four
age group, it's the number three cause of death in
(08:36):
a fifteen to twenty four year old kids. You know,
six thousand of them died last year from suicide. Twenty
five to thirty four, it's the number two cause of death.
Over eighty six hundred people took their lives in that
age group.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And is what is your organization doing. Obviously you do
a lot to help get the word out for suicide prevention,
what is the message that your foundation really wants to
get across.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That we can reduce the number, you know, the goal
is zero. That's the goal. But what we're really trying
to do is get that number as close to zero
as we possibly can, as quickly as we can, and
that's through multiple ways. We do a lot of education programs,
So if anybody's any of the listeners are looking for
(09:29):
education programs, please reach out. We'll put them on really
to anybody anywhere, anytime, and we don't charge for them
at all. So that's one way to get the word out.
We do a lot of those in schools, We do
a lot of those in communities. Would be happy to
present them in workplaces as well. We do that. We're
(09:51):
also doing advocacy. We're in Harrisburg. We're going to Harrisburg
in I think it's late a April. I'm sorry, DC
in late April, and I think Harrisburg is in June.
So we're meeting with politicians all the time to try
to get laws changed. Nine to eight eight was a
big one that we were pushing hard to get to happen,
(10:12):
which is the nine to one one for mental health.
So you can reach out to nine eight eight for
mental health reasons and you will get somebody that understands
mental health and help you through the thoughts you're having
Right now.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We're talking with Doug B. Doug Bishop of the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He mentioned a couple of the
walks here in the Pittsburgh area or actually western Pennsylvania area.
You can get more information on the website at af
SP dot org. What are some of the warning signs
for suicide?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Generally for most people, you're going to see things like
they're lethargic, they might be sleeping extremely long hours. You
just notice something's not quite right. Some of the things
might be what they say, like, you know, I don't
(11:08):
want to be a burden. Those kind of things. You
can see in actions they start giving away their things.
Those are signs. What you want to do when you
see some of those is, you know, if you're a
gun owner, you want to make sure your guns, your
firearms are locked and safe, and the same thing with
(11:31):
the ammunition.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
You know, that's a controversial topic, but it's probably you know.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Number one methodology.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Methodology, Yes, it is the number one methodology. And again
this is sort of a shocking statistic.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You also have to be aware of what your kids
or parents are loved one is going through. If they're
going through a breakup or maybe a health issue, or
problems at school, or you know a number of.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
A number of things that can just again, as I
said earlier, if they've got some mental health issues, these
are things that kind of you know, push that a
little bit and there's too many pushes and things start
falling apart. So you need to be aware of that.
You need to know what your kids are doing, what
they're up to, and pay attention a little bit.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
You and I come from a generation where in a
mental health issues, we didn't talk No, we didn't talk
about it. Well, it's gotten better, but you know, there's
always room for improvement.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It's gotten better. I think in the younger age groups specifically,
they talk about it more often. I think there's just
so much anxiety out there. I think some of that
might have to do with social media, maybe too much
cell phone usage, so you don't really talk to your friends.
Your text to your friends, and I always say, those
(12:46):
aren't real conversations, those are texts. So talking with your
friend about you know, your struggles, just hey i'm having
a bad time here. Being able to do that is important.
But on the other side of it, if you're on
the receiving end of those conversations. It's great to listen
and it's great to help your friend. But what we're
(13:06):
finding is a lot of that age group is open
to hearing about it and talking about it, but they
don't always know what.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To do or what to say, or what to say.
Sometimes it's okay, let me ask you something. So we
talked about some of the warning signs of suicide. Once
you see one or two of those, how do you
bring that subject up?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Sometimes you just slightly bring it up to ask somebody
if they're considering taking their life. You're not going to
push them into that by asking the question that's been
researched that's the truth. So just flat out asking somebody, hey,
you're really down, you really seem depressed, and like, are
(13:48):
you thinking about taking your life? It's not a horrible
question to ask, and more often than not, the recipient
of that question will probably feel relief that somebody's actually
wanting to talk about it because it's in their head.
But they don't want to talk about it right because
that stigma is still there. But if you can get
(14:10):
them to talk about it, that's the first step. That's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Talk a little more about the stigma.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
If we can remove the stigma, we would see a
rapid decrease. I'm sure of that. And the stigma is
just people don't want to talk about mental health. I
think the word mental health bothers me a bit. I
think it should just be health. Let's just talk about
it like any other health problem. You know, people have
(14:41):
blood pressure issues, you even die about.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh we can't talk about blood pressure.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Oh we can't talk about blood pressure, but we do
a lot. Yeah, but we don't talk about depression. We
don't talk about mental health.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Why.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I think for men, a lot of men think, oh,
you know, you're soft. It's a sign of weakness. It's
a sign of weakness. No, guys, listen, it's a sign
of strength to admit that you've got a mental health problem.
So please, if you do.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Talk about it, women aren't you know, and women too.
But at the same time, everybody, women should be aware
that men have a really tough time talking about our feelings. Correct,
we've gotten a little bit better through the years, but
not that. But we still are very reluctant to admit
that we are we are having issues, and we're afraid that,
you know, maybe a significant other or you know, a
(15:37):
coworker is going to use that against us, and it's
something that really we need. We need to get through
that stigma. We need to be able to talk about
our feelings.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
In one hundred and thirty Yes, yes, we need to
talk about it. I mean, one of our educational programs
is Talk Saves Lives.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
All right, I noticed that that was one of the
questions I had, so tell us about that program.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, that that is sort of our most largely asked
program for us to put on. And that's likely because it,
you know, hits across all all the populations, but we
do have some specific ones. We have them for the workplace,
we have them for the LGBTQ community, we have them
(16:22):
for the black community. So there's lots of different versions
out there, but this particular program we talk a little
bit about mental health in general and then get into
the specific of depression in suicide, and we talk about
the signs. We talk about, you know, reaching out for
(16:43):
help to nine eight eight, you know, trying to get
medication from a psychiatrist, talk, therapy, all of those things
that will help you get through some of those issues.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Nine eight eight, that's the number to call if you're
feeling you know, absolutely those warning science have you? Do
you see that as a positive stats? Are you seeing
positive that?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, what we're hearing from the folks that were in
nine ninety eight is that the there's a huge increase
in phone calls from the very beginning and a decrease
on the nine to one one side. So now we're
getting more of the mental health calls actually going directly
to nine eight eight, and all the other health issues
(17:29):
go to nine one one or emergency issues go to
nine one one. So yes, it's it's it's great. But
with all the funding cuts that we're now seeing out there,
we don't want to see any funding cuts of nine
eight eight. We don't want to see funding cuts of
Medicare Medicaid because there's a lot of folks with mental
(17:50):
health issues relying on both of those. And so call
your congressman.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
We're talking with Doug Bishop of the American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention, the Western P'savania Chapter. I do want to
remind people we do not directly provide mental health or
crisis services. Please consult a professional, but if you want
more information, the website is AFSP dot org. I have
a cut. I want to play from your website. But
(18:17):
let's talk about some of the walks that are happening.
And if somebody wants to participate in the walk, they
can just go to the website.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right right, right, They're all listed on the website. So
all the campus walks are coming up through March through April.
So we've got nine different campus walks that you can attend,
so there's plenty of chances there. We also have the
community walks in the fall. We have right now five
set for the fall, and those are generally September and October.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
All right, this is from their website. If you want
more information on the walks, the website is AFSP dot org.
This is from the website. Here is doctor Christine and Espositosmithers.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
There's something very important that parents need to know and
that there is a strong connection between adolescent alcohol use
and suicidality, where with regular drinking come many other problems
like family arguments and problems in school, and problems across
a whole other host of areas, which then increases risk
for depression, which in turn increases risk for suicidality. What
(19:27):
a parent should do first if they have any inkling
that their child is suicidal or a friend of their
child as suicidal, is that they must absolutely must take
the suicidality seriously and they must act on it, because
sometimes you don't have very long before a teenager will
move from thoughts to action, and every suicidal statement must
(19:47):
be taken seriously, and parents must get access to mental
health treatment and mental health evaluation for their children. With
my work, I've brought a strong focus on including the
family into the treatment. The family struggles very much like
the teenager does. And when you love your child a
great deal and you see that your child is struggling,
(20:08):
it's very very hard for you as well. And so
I feel that it's very important to include parents and
family members and the treatment to provide them with the
support that they need to help their teenager get better
and also help them learn different types of skills and
strategies to best help that happen. When I include parents
in treatment programs, I think of them as coaches. Right,
So when teenagers are in the therapy room with us,
(20:30):
it's one hour a week or maybe two hours a week,
but parents are with them the rest of the time.
So I feel that it's very, very important to teach
parents much of the same things that we're teaching the teenagers,
so that the parents can help the teenagers use it
outside of session and serve as their coaches.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Doctor Christine and was talked about the alcohol use with adolescence.
Is that just one of the warning signs of possible.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I would say, yes, you should look at that seriously.
And I think what she said one of the comments
that she made there was take every comment seriously. Yeah,
some some I've heard heard people, Oh they're just seeking attention.
Don't ever think that I was going to bring that
up because you could be wrong. Yeah, and you don't
(21:17):
want to be wrong. So you want to again alcohol, Yes,
that's again she said alcohol, and then issues with the
family and yeah, so there's again multiple things, but I
would absolutely consider that a problem.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
A lot of the walks that you have coming up
in March and April are kind of focused on collegiate level,
But you know, what are some of the schools, high schools,
what are they doing to bring up you know, suicide prevention.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Actually, there was a law change hoof maybe five or
so years ago that is now requiring mental health topics
to be discussed in the schools and so that's a plus.
We love to see that. So they are talking about it.
And we have one of our programs that was used
(22:10):
to talk about it in many many schools. We presented
it to numerous schools in the area when the first
when the law change came out. So it's called More
Than Sad, and it deals pretty much in the target
zone of like middle school, junior high But we also
have another program called It's Real that deals more in
(22:33):
the high school more like a senior year going into
the college years and the college age kids. And that
actually that particular program, It's Real, it's actually six different
students talking about their mental health struggles as they're attending college.
So you can see firsthand, you know, the video and
(22:55):
the audio directly from them of what their struggles are.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It's that program available on the webs.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Uh No, but we put it on. We'll put it
on for any school that wants it, okay. And so
if this school wants it, and what what is the message?
What is the messaging that you present to the kids? Again,
it's real, It's okay, talk saves lives, talk about everything
and bringing up and bring it up to your friends.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
And the stigma you need it by talking your breaking.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Down the stigma.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Absolutely, that is you know there's something that that I'm
I'm glad that we're having that conversation. And it's a
tough conversation to have, but it's vital. It's vital.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
But the more we talk about it, the easier it
will get, it'll be more commonplace. So yes, we talk
about it. So we don't just present that video. We
present information prior show the video, lots of talk and
discussion afterwards, so you know, that's the idea of the
video is to get the kids to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So your foundation, what is the what is the number
one question you get from people who are.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Looking for many times they're looking for therapists, and I
wish that I could give them our list of therapists,
but we don't have our list. It's just too difficult
to do. But if you are looking for a therapist,
our general suggestion is Psychology Today magazine has a website
(24:20):
and it has a search and sort function in it
that's fantastic, so you can find somebody in that direction.
Same thing with psychiatrists. We wish we could offer some suggestions,
but again it's it just gets very difficult with insurance issues,
et cetera. That's probably the number one question is can
you find my child of therapist? We wish we could.
(24:44):
Other other issues would be things like, you know, things
you're you're asking me, like what are the what are
the signs? What do we look for? You know, what
do we do once we see some signs? Et cetera.
Those are the bigger questions, but we're we're out there
trying to put as much education programs on as possible.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Do you get questions like is it better to have
tough love or soft love? You know what? You know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Right, We do get that a little bit, But I
think that's so difficult to answer. It depends on the relationship,
depends on you know, who you're talking about. If you're
talking about your kids, you know, every kid's different. You know,
they don't come with instruction medias, so we don't know
how to build them and put them together. So you
(25:35):
just have to kind of figure that one out, you know,
and maybe that's something you know, it wouldn't hurt to
have family therapy, you know, go to therapy with your
child if that's where the issue is. Or with your
spouse if that's where the issue is, go together. There
are family therapists out there for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Now you have a number of walks coming up in
the in the western Pennsylvania are coming up and we're
going to talk about that in a second. But if
somebody wants to volunteer or make a donation, I'm sure
you get a lot of people who are interested in
helping out.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Absolutely, we're always looking for volunteers. So again you can
go to our website and sign up there if you
we we have regular meetings. If you can get on
our mailing list, we will give you a list of
you know, the upcoming volunteer dates where we you know,
gather together and let everybody know, Okay, here's here's an
(26:29):
event coming up that we're a little short. We need
some people here and etsatura and we're going to try
to make those a little bit more casual and fun
talking about suicide prevention. But yeah, we're going to have more.
We want to have more and more connections with the volunteers.
That's important.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And then when it comes to advocacy, what do you suggest.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
We we we always look for people to go to
d C and Harrisburg with us. So we're getting that
group together right now.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I think is always an issue. And and I know
you you look for the state, but you know what
else can you What do you want them? What do
you need people to do?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
We need them for advocacy. We need them to go
to Harrisburg and d C talk to the politicians. We'll
have it scripted out as far as you know what
the what the buzzwords are, what may be laws that
we're looking at that they're talking about to get changed
or added. Those those are the things that we need.
We need laws. We need more mental health care. We
(27:34):
need more insurance dollars towards mental health. We need to
make sure therapists are able to get paid a living
wage because that's a problem. So many therapists just can't
make enough money, and then we just we lose therapists.
So it's there's just so many issues that we need
a lot of changes.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
We only have a couple of minutes left, so let's
kind of recap some of the walks that are happening
in Western Pa. Where they are and how do they
sign up sure.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
The upcoming campus walks. I'll give you the list real quick.
And you can look on our website and they will
have all the dates, all the times at exact locations.
But upcoming we have pitt Point Park Waynesburg, Robert Morris, Duquine, Laroche,
Slippery Rock, Chatham, and penn State Fayette. We also have
(28:26):
a new walk that is not a campus walk coming
up in April. It's the construction hike for Hope in Pennsylvania.
And there's actually two walks on the same day, one
in Harrisburg and one right here in Pittsburgh at Settler's Cabin.
And why is the construction We have discovered that that
is a very high risk industry. It's the second highest
(28:50):
risk for suicide industry, and they're very interested in bringing
that number down very much. So yeah, so we're looking
to grow that one. That's our first year with this
particular walk, so we're looking to grow that from here.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
If you need more information, go to their website. AFSP
dot org. That's a FSP dot org. Doug Bishop of
the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter,
it's a pleasure. Thank you so much. Good luck with
your walks.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Thank you so much, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
As always, if you have any comments, concerns, or an
idea for a future program, please email us from this
radio station's website. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much
for listening.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
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(30:05):
a wig needed from chemotherapy, along with support and prayer.
Learn more at our website hairpeace dot org. That's hair
p e ace E
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