Efforts are being made locally to help people in need to know how and where to access support.
It’s one of the leading causes of death in the United States, with rates increasing. In fact there’s about one death every 11 minutes from suicide.
And when people die by suicide, there’s a huge emotional toll on their surviving family and friends. An emotional toll that Gabe Teran knows all to well, having experienced his own journey of loss and grief after the death of a family member by suicide.
"I was in my early twenties. I had lived with this person for five years and really cared for them and it was unexpected on my end. But it's also something that culturally and within my family that we didn't talk about and something that I carried with me for a number of years," said Teran.
He’s now sharing his journey of hope and healing at a Preventing Suicide Forum, hosted by Ventura County Behavioral health – in the hope that his story can help others.
"Because of my own personal experience with it. It's something that has been fulfilling to help folks understand how to heal others or how to help themselves or get help," he said.
But the number of people that you encounter who carry this with them, this personal experience, who because of that stigma, feel maybe there's shame attached to it or for whatever reason, don't share that this is something they've experienced through someone else or their own thoughts," said Teran, who is the keynote speaker at Tuesday's forum, which its hoped will be an opportunity to start conversations, provide support and direct help to those in need.
And while focus may be on suicide this month, Dr Loretta Denering, Acting Director of Ventura County Behavioral Health Department, says they are working all year round in the county to fight back against a public health emergency which they say is preventable.
"I don't know that it's a surprise to anyone that, unfortunately, suicides are trending up," said Denering. "This is something we anticipated - we as in health care - anticipated, with COVID 19, because there was a huge, tremendous impact to all of us," she said.
"The isolation and changing into remote work and what that did to us. Now we're kind of starting to see the effects from the last three years. And then also in the combination use of fentanyl and the impact that that's had and the combination with fentanyl and alcohol use. But help is out there and we are here. No matter what your background is, your socioeconomic status, we can get you what you need to to support you," she said.
"There's a saying that folks always throw out there is check on your strong friends," said Denering. "The people who look like they have it together, that people always move as though everything is fine and they can bear the brunt of everything and none of us can do that."
"People don't feel like they can share how low that they are, even if they've never had behavioral health or mental health challenges. And I think that's also kind of a misconception, is that people who unfortunately die by suicide have some undiagnosed something, and that's not necessarily true. There are a lot of reasons why it happens," said Denering.
"I think that's why it's so important for us to just get that messaging out that there is help available and that it's okay to talk," she said.
The forum will take place Tuesday, September 12, 2023, from 4pm-8pm, at the Performing Arts Building at Oxnard College, 4000 South Rose Avenue, Oxnard. (park in Lot H).
