Clinical Social Work
988 - A Step Towards a Transformed Crisis Care System in America By Mary Jean Weston, LCSW
“According to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New Jersey had next to the lowest suicide mortality in the United States. While this may appear to be good news, New Jersey residents continue to die by suicide, and we believe that every life lost is one too many.” NOTE: This article talks about suicidal thoughts and feelings. If this is a triggering issue for you, please consider if or when you want to read further.
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eptember is Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. It ’s a month when we, as professional Social Workers, can take some time to consider the importance of life and how fragile it is. Every day we work in some capacity to help people make their lives better. But some individuals are in a very dark place and struggle to find any light or hope for their future. Ending their lives. Dying. Being dead. This is their solution to the crises, the pain, the exhaustion, the anger, the fear, the isolation, the hopelessness, the loneliness… Being dead is their solution to the complete despair they are facing. For those who have not been down this road, it may be hard to imagine just how deep and dark this place can be. It ’s the reason that we learn in our professional training that it ’s okay to ask someone if they are thinking of killing themselves. Those who are in this dark corridor often find this a helpful question, as it opens the door to a conversation few people are comfortable having with them. For those who are not contemplating suicide, it seems like
NJFOCUS •Winter 2023
a strange question. It is often answered by, “No!” followed by some additional comment that indicates this is not a path they would be likely to choose. A Crisis of Mental Health Crises According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021 (the last year for which we have complete data). That same year, 48,183 Americans died by suicide and there were an estimated 1.7 million suicide attempts. Clearly many, many people are in that dark place. And since the end of 2021, stressors including the pandemic, the economy, climate change and political developments, as well as many personal challenges, have continued to bring difficult times to many people. 988 - A Step Towards a Transformed Crisis Care System in America In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission