September is Suicide Prevention Month. Someone in your community will have taken their own lives or attempted it. With tens of thousands suicides every year in the U.S., we are a nation in a mental health crisis that might not be noticeable for some people until a suicide occurs.

To begin today’s article from the Child Mind Institute on this issue, Molly Hagan notes that we must be willing to talk about it if we are to prevent it and to treat the issues that underlie it. We hope you will find her article and links helpful in your community.

Suicide and Helping Struggling Kids

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and an important reminder that preventing suicide starts with a willingness to talk about it. A friend of mine who struggled with suicidal thoughts as a teenager once told me that she longed for someone to talk to about how she was feeling but wasn’t sure how to do it. It can feel scary, especially if you’re a teen yourself, to consider that someone you care about is thinking about suicide. So you might avoid the topic altogether, worried you’ll mess up and say the wrong thing. But a lot of times, people who have thoughts about killing themselves are scared, too — my friend described it as a profound sense of isolation, like she was stuck on a deserted island. She eventually got the support she needed, but a genuine “How are you?” from a friend, she said, would have been received with more relief than they could have known, a gesture from a distant shore.

This week, we’re rounding up resources on how to navigate conversations about suicide. When kids are in distress, we want them to come to us, but many confide in their friends first. So, we have advice for teens explaining, step-by-step, what to do if a friend says something like, “I don’t want to be alive anymore” or “Everyone would be better off without me.” If your child has thought about killing themselves, we have resources on getting them treatment, including how to make a safety plan (what to do when suicidal thoughts happen), and what to expect when you take a child to the ER during a psychiatric emergency. We also have a podcast episode featuring NBC’s Kate Snow, who discusses the importance of having hard conversations before a crisis happens, talking to kids about how they’re feeling, and recognizing when they need help.