Thirty storytellers shared their stories of struggles with mental health and how they are finding resilience as part of Lost&Found’s 30 Days, 30 Stories project, which was part of National Suicide Prevention Month in September. Here, we reflect on what we learned from the project.
1. Finding storytellers was easier than it was in our first year, but challenges remain.
From staff members and partners in the mental health profession, we were able to come up with a list of more than 50 names of potential storytellers. “People are waiting to tell their stories; we just have to ask them to do so,” said L&F Community Engagement Manager Joel Kaskinen. “In our second year of this campaign, I found it easier to find people to share their stories, which tells me our communities are more open to sharing and the stigma around mental illness and suicide is decreasing.”
While getting stories, photos, and videos from about 20 storytellers from our list of potential storytellers was fairly straightforward, finding the last 10 was more difficult. Some potential storytellers didn’t feel it was the right time to tell their stories. Five people submitted stories, but we were unable to follow up to schedule photos with them. “Recruiting seemed rushed at the end,” said Prevention Programming Specialist Melissa Renes. “I would suggest offering the opportunity year-round and making it more normalized to share instead of requesting stories later in the year.”
2. We made improvements in recruiting stories that represent the diversity in our communities.
“I think the attempt to find diverse stories helped show that we were inclusive, and that mental health does not discriminate,” Renes said. “It put faces to the work we are doing.”
One significant improvement was telling more stories from the LGBTQIA2S+ community. More than 30 percent of storytellers indicated they are something other than heterosexual (including “prefer not to disclose”). This is important, because surveys (such as this one from the Trevor Project) indicate that LGBTQIA2S+ individuals are at higher risk for suicide. Telling these stories empowers the storytellers and helps to foster understanding empathy and understanding in the rest of society.
Our storyteller demographics in terms of race were not yet representative of the state as a whole or of the demographics of suicide in South Dakota. Native Americans make up 8.5 percent of South Dakota residents, and 20 percent of suicides in South Dakota (2012-21) were of Native Americans; just 1, or 3 percent, of our storytellers was Native. We had stories from three additional Native Americans but were unable to connect with them for photos and videos, which suggests we need to work on our process to accommodate people who might have difficulty traveling or taking off from work to meet us for a photo shoot. We hope to be able to connect with some or all of those storytellers for next year’s project.
We didn’t have as many stories as we’d hoped from people in our target age group. Sixty percent were in the target age group of 10-34. Forty percent of our storytellers were 35 to 54. We definitely value stories of resilience from people of any age, but it would be nice to have more stories from people who are in our target demographic.
While we improved in our gender balance from last year, 70 percent of our storytellers were women. “Young women are the most willing to share their stories,” Kaskinen said. “Women aged 10-34 was also the demographic that we reached most through social media.” We will continue to work to break through the limiting “tough guy” stereotype that men can’t talk about their mental health.
3. Storytellers gave a wide variety of resources that helped them find resilience.
“The resources showcased emphasized that when looking at recovery and maintaining positive mental health, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Renes said. The categories of resources suggested were professional mental health care (31 percent), family and friends (20 percent), other strategies (20 percent), support groups (14 percent), educational resources (10 percent) and crisis resources (4 percent). (Most storytellers cited more than one resource.)
Storytellers cited professional mental health care (in a variety of forms) most often when they listed resources that had helped them. While it’s wonderful that people have found help through professional services, this makes it that much more important to try to get more people into the mental health profession. There are not enough people to meet the need currently.
4. Storytellers shared a message of hope: It is possible to improve mental health.
The path from a dark place to a better place varies greatly from person to person, but it often starts with communication. This communication can come from person struggling: Speaking up about what is going on with them, connecting with a resource, or asking for help. But storytellers often welcomed the care of a friend or family member to start the conversation, and they wished more people had voiced their care and concern. “A theme I noticed throughout stories was that people wished more had talked to them, or they would have liked to know more resources were there,” Renes said.
The project had an impressive 183,455 impressions across all media! Here are some additional statistics on the reach of the project through the web, social media, and the Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast:
The second-annual Longball22 Classic, held July 22 at Grand Falls Casino & Resort in Larchwood, Iowa, was another successful, meaningful gathering to raise awareness and funds for student mental health. This event honors Ben Longley, a college student who died by suicide in 2020.
This year, 37 teams of four competed in the tournament, more than 250 guests were in attendance, and together, we raised over $80,000 for peer-led student mental health and suicide prevention programming. Thanks to an anonymous match partway through the evening, we surpassed our fundraising goal and are able to make a major impact in our communities.
With over 100 silent auction items donated from local businesses and individuals, a live performance by Nashville singer/songwriter Blessing Offor, and a sold-out tournament of 150 golfers, the outpouring of community, love, and resilience was certainly felt at this year’s Classic.
Taneeza Islam, Executive Director of South Dakota Voices for Peace, a Sioux Falls-based nonprofit with an aim to dismantle bigotry and racism targeting refugee, immigrant, and Muslim communities, is on the show to talk about how SDVFP’s services help to support our work of prevention, intervention, and postvention of suicide, among a population at great risk, especially in South Dakota. Using the CDC’s seven strategies for preventing suicide found in their technical package for suicide prevention, to guide our work, we asked Taneeza to think through the work that SDVFP does to strengthen economic supports for the communities she serves and how we can do more by working together, rather than in silos.
Lindsey McCarthy, Executive Director of Southern Plains Behavioral Health Services, a South Dakota-based agency fulfilling social and emotional health needs in the community. Using the CDC’s seven strategies for preventing suicide found in their technical package for suicide prevention to guide our work, we asked Lindsey how SPBHS is utilizing these same strategies in their services, which include psychiatric care, counseling, case management, systems of care, community education, crisis intervention and emergency services, trauma support, and so much more.
To learn more about the work that Lost&Found is doing to prevent suicide among youth and young adults, go to resilienttoday.org. To learn more about the work that Southern Plains Behavioral Health Services is doing to strengthen access and delivery of suicide care in South Dakota, go to spbhs.net. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (@resilienttoday).
Listen on Spotify or find other listening options on Anchor.
SIOUX FALLS, SD — A South Dakotan’s story of resilience in the face of mental health challenges or suicide will be shared each day of September, which is National Suicide Prevention Month, as part of a project called “30 Days, 30 Stories: Let’s #DoMore to Prevent Suicide.”
The project is sponsored by the suicide prevention organization Lost&Found, in partnership with the South Dakota Humanities Council and 4Front Studios.
The stories are told by 30 South Dakotans (or people whose stories are connected to South Dakota). They include written stories, photos, and a short video that are released on the project website, 30stories.org, as well as shared on social media. Four episodes of the Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast will also be released in September featuring five of the storytellers. One episode with special guest and TikTok influencer Gabe Dannenbring will be recorded live on Sept. 8 at Severance Brewing in Sioux Falls.
Dannenbring is one of several storytellers this year with names that might be familiar to South Dakotans. Their stories about mental health, however, may be known to just a few.
“The 30 Stories campaign brings much needed awareness and resources for mental health and suicide prevention to the public eye at a time when suicide death is impacting youth and young adults in larger numbers than ever before,” said Erik Muckey, Executive Director/CEO of Lost&Found. “These courageous South Dakotans choosing to share their struggles and the resources that helped them will make a difference not just in one life, but thousands here in South Dakota and beyond.”
The project has three main goals:
Increase awareness of mental health challenges all around us, as this can reduce the stigma of mental illness and seeking help.
Empower people to share their stories. This includes the people who are featured here, but also those who read and identify with these stories and may find courage to tell their own. Storytelling involves deciding what details matter (and which don’t), and finding meaning in a series of events. This process can be healing in itself.
Promote the resources that can help people through even the darkest of times. The project aims to make people more aware of the statewide suicide prevention resources that young adults and families have found relevant to their experiences, identities, and communities.
Suicide doesn’t start in a moment of crisis. By addressing the risk factors that contribute to suicide and building up the protective factors that keep people from considering suicide, we can save lives. These seven actions are adapted from the CDC’s seven strategies for suicide prevention. While the CDC’s strategies are largely directed toward mental health professionals and policymakers, there are ways that every one of us can do more to prevent suicide. Read through the list and see how you can take action today to save lives.
1. Help people facing dire financial situations or the loss of housing.
Financial stress, homelessness, or even worries about finances or eviction can increase the risk of suicide. If you know of someone going through a hard time, make sure they don’t feel alone. Work to connect them to resources that can help with both their situation and their mental health. Also, be sure to support policies that ensure people aren’t falling through the cracks.
2. Learn what mental health and suicide prevention resources are available in your area.
The awareness of the importance of mental health is increasing, and the stigma around talking about and seeking mental health is decreasing. This means you are more likely to hear about someone’s struggles than you might have been even a few years ago. Then the question becomes, how can you help? Lost&Found offers a variety of tools for helpers, starting with the EARS framework (described in Lost&Found’s Let’s Talk about Mental Health Guide) to guide your conversation—engage, attend, reinforce, seek. Prepare yourself for the “seek” part of the conversation—seeking help together—by becoming familiar with the mental health and suicide prevention resources available in your area. Lost&Found’s Resources page provides a good overview. The first and easiest resource to become familiar with is this number: 988. This goes to the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and it can be reached by calling or texting.
3. Reduce access to lethal means in your home, workplace, and community.
Two key pieces of data support this action: First, research shows that attempting suicide is often an impulse based on an intense emotion—the time between deciding to act and attempting suicide can be as little as 5 or 10 minutes. Second, if a person chooses a highly lethal method of suicide, but that method is not available, they tend not to substitute a different method. This means that if we can stretch the time between the decision and the attempt, and if we can make lethal means harder to access, we can save lives. Make sure medications and firearms are safely stored—in other words, behind a lock—in your home. Also look around your workplace and community—if there are places such as bridges where a suicide could take place easily, consider installing signs to encourage people to seek help.
4. Get involved in your community, and work to include those who might be isolated.
Studies suggest there is a correlation between social capital—meaning the sense of trust in a community and the connections between its members—and mental health. This means that all sorts of things that might not seem directly connected to mental health, such as knowing and interacting with your neighbors, block parties, and community improvement projects, are actually long-game suicide prevention strategies. In school settings, this can include participating in clubs or sports, as well as peer support programs. Consider how you could help build social capital in your community. If you are already involved in your community, invite someone else to participate with you to draw the circle of community support a little bigger.
5. Commit to learning—and teaching—how to deal with conflict.
Having the skills to deal with the stresses and adversities of life can help protect people from turning to suicide as an option. Programs that teach these skills, such as social-emotional learning programs for children and teens, or parenting skills and family relationship programs, can give people tools for dealing with problems—and, just as important, they can plant the idea that life’s problems can be solved, or at least managed and improved. One life skill that can help decrease stress and build relationships is learning how to deal productively with conflict. As polarization in society increases and gives people the idea that animosity in the face of conflict is a virtue, knowing how to address conflicts productively is a vital skill. This article on the basics of dealing with conflict in relationships is a good place to start.
6. Work to be accepting of people in marginalized demographic groups that are at higher risk of suicide.
Some groups have higher rates of suicidal behaviors than average. They include people with lower socio-economic status, people with a mental health problem, people who have previously attempted suicide, veterans and active military, people who are the victims of violence, LGBTQIA2S+ people, and members of some racial and ethnic groups. One group that is at higher risk is LGBTQIA2S+ youth. A Trevor Project survey found that 45 percent of LGBTQ youth had seriously considered suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth; 14 percent of LGBTQ youth had attempted suicide in the past year. The survey also pointed to an obvious way to help: suicide attempts were significantly lower among LGBTQ youth that were in accepting communities or who had accepting family and friends. Accepting LGBTQIA2S+ youth for who they are can save lives.
7. Learn how to talk about suicide in ways that don’t add to the trauma of those who have suffered a suicide loss.
The risk of suicide is higher for people who have lost a friend, family member, or other close contact to suicide. While talking about suicide is important—not talking about suicide can feed into a sense of shame for survivors of suicide loss—knowing how to talk about suicide is just as important so we don’t inadvertently add to a survivor’s pain. For example, one phrase to remove from your vocabulary is “committed suicide.” “Committed” is left over from the outdated belief that suicide is a criminal act. It’s better to say “died by suicide.” There are more suggestions for how to talk about mental health and suicide on page 26 in Lost&Found’s Let’s Talk About Mental Health Guide—download it free here.
You can review the CCD’s seven suicide prevention strategies here. Click on the image to see the full report.
This article is part of the 30 Days, 30 Stories: Let’s #DoMore to Prevent Suicide project. See a new story of resilience for every day of National Suicide Prevention Month here.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Great Minds with Lost&Found, host Joel Kaskinen chats with Cherokee McAlpine about her lived experiences with mental illness, the foster care system, and healthcare. Surviving a turbulent childhood of abuse, trauma, drugs and alcohol, rape, and multiple suicide attempts, Cherokee now shares her story with others in hopes that they will have a greater understanding of the needs children in similar situations have. Cherokee is a soon-to-be mother, working with youth, and striving to provide them with a better life than the one she had growing up.
This episode is part of Lost&Found’s annual #30Days30Stories digital storytelling campaign for #NationalSuicidePreventionMonth. With goals of increasing awareness of mental health challenges, empowering others to share their stories, and providing resources for support, this campaign is a major part of Lost&Found’s advocacy strategy. Read all stories shared through this campaign at 30stories.org.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
You may know Gabe Dannenbring as “that teacher from TikTok,” but Gabe is so much more than just an influencer. Gabe is a local South Dakotan, former college athlete, and human who struggles with mental health challenges just like the rest of us. In this episode of Great Minds, Gabe shares his experiences with mental health, how social media “fame” has impacted his wellbeing, and how he teaches his students to use social media in a healthy way.
This episode is part of Lost&Found’s annual #30Days30Stories digital storytelling campaign for #NationalSuicidePreventionMonth. With goals of increasing awareness of mental health challenges, empowering others to share their stories, and providing resources for support, this campaign is a major part of Lost&Found’s advocacy strategy. Read all stories shared through this campaign at 30stories.org.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Jake Danielson is a South Dakotan living with anxiety, depression, psychosis, and other mental health challenges. He has survived multiple suicide attempts, has been in and out of treatment, and has recently started a movement inspiring others to share their stories of mental health struggles. In this episode, Jake chats with host Joel Kaskinen about these challenges, how being a college athlete impacted his mental health, what gets him through his toughest days, and his work with the We Can Movement.
This episode is part of Lost&Found’s annual #30Days30Stories digital storytelling campaign for #NationalSuicidePreventionMonth. With goals of increasing awareness of mental health challenges, empowering others to share their stories, and providing resources for support, this campaign is a major part of Lost&Found’s advocacy strategy. Read all stories shared through this campaign at 30stories.org.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
The Suttons are no stranger to loss. From a rodeo accident that left Billie paralyzed from the waist down to losing a gubernatorial election and finally the death of their daughter, Billie and Kelsea know what loss feels like and the toll it takes mentally. They share their journey with loss (and gain) in this episode of Great Minds with Lost&Found. If someone can be the testament to how much you can gain from losing it all, the Suttons are it.
This episode is part of Lost&Found’s annual #30Days30Stories digital storytelling campaign for #NationalSuicidePreventionMonth. With goals of increasing awareness of mental health challenges, empowering others to share their stories, and providing resources for support, this campaign is a major part of Lost&Found’s advocacy strategy. Read all stories shared through this campaign at 30stories.org.
Lost&Found, in partnership with the South Dakota Humanities Council and 4Front Studios, is conducting a digital storytelling project for National Suicide Prevention Month (September).
The project, titled “30 Days, 30 Stories: Let’s #DoMore to Prevent Suicide,” will tell the stories of 30 youth and young adults from the state of South Dakota who have faced and overcome adversity resulting from mental health challenges and/or suicide ideation, risks, attempts, and loss. As South Dakota faces record suicide rates, the need to share and understand what resources are most helpful to someone who may be struggling with mental health condition(s) or suicide ideation is greater than ever. For every day of September, one story of resilience will be released online to share a message of hope and help to those who may be struggling.
As an organization focused on providing comprehensive suicide prevention resources for youth and young adults 10-34 in South Dakota and the surrounding region, Lost&Found’s goal for this project is to increase access to statewide mental health and suicide prevention resources that young adults and families find relevant to their experiences, identities, and communities. The project is also meant to create conversations in our communities about what will make the greatest difference in someone’s life.
An honest, heartfelt story has the power to change hearts and minds. As South Dakota and the surrounding region face continually rising suicide rates, we’ve asked individuals to share their stories of resilience to lend hope, opportunities for conversation, and resources to South Dakota communities.
As an organization focused on providing comprehensive suicide prevention and postvention resources for young adults 10-34 in South Dakota and the surrounding region, Lost&Found has three main goals for this campaign:
Increase awareness of mental health challenges all around us, as this can reduce the stigma of mental illness and seeking help.
Empower people to share their stories. This includes the people who are featured here, but also those who read and identify with these stories and may find courage to tell their own. Storytelling involves deciding what details matter (and which don’t), and finding meaning in a series of events. This process can be healing in itself.
Promote the resources that can help people through even the darkest of times. We especially want people to learn about and know how to access the statewide suicide prevention resources that young adults and families have found relevant to their experiences, identities, and communities.
We invite you to submit your story.
If you have gone through a mental health challenge or felt the impact of suicide, this project is an opportunity for you to be empowered by sharing your story. You can help someone in similar circumstances navigate the challenges and resources necessary to find their own hope and resilience.
We recognize that sharing a story is a personal decision that may involve grief, trauma, and vulnerability, and we completely respect and understand if this is not something you wish to do. There are other ways to support the goals of the project if that is of interest.
Here’s the process:
You’ll fill out a formwith eight questions about your story and your experiences seeking resources and support that helped them navigate a mental health condition or impacts from suicide (ideation, attempt, loss, or other experience).
You will also be required to fill out a waiver, either on your own or with support from a parent.
Someone from Lost&Found will contact you to schedule a time for a photo/video shoot in one of three locations (Rapid City, Aberdeen, or Sioux Falls) in July or August, depending on location. If those times/locations don’t work for you, we’ll work with you to schedule a time that does. You will be able to keep these two professional headshots, video, and any other materials at no cost to use as you see fit!
Your written responses will be turned into a story to be published with a professional headshot and a brief, 30-second-or-less video capturing their experiences and shared on 30stories.resilienttoday.org and on Lost&Found social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn).
In addition, four participants will have the opportunity to share their stories as part of live podcasting sessions held in various locations throughout the state of South Dakota closest to where that participant lives.
You will also receive materials from Lost&Found to navigate conversations about mental health that may arise with the campaign.
You will be notified of when your story will be shared in September and invited to spread the word to others in your community who may want or need to hear about your experiences.
Please note that because we have a limited number of days and because we want to share stories from a diversity of perspectives, we may not publish every story that’s submitted for this year’s project. We may request to use your story for future projects if that’s the case.
Your story could help to spread a message of hope, help, and resilience. Go to the link below to share your story.
Data gathered at the end of the spring 2022 semester show that students said they gained skills and were satisfied with Lost&Found’s Peer2Peer and Advocates programs.
“All the great feedback we got about the session topics was wonderful,” said Melissa Renes, Senior Prevention Specialist, who coordinates the Advocates program. “It was reassuring to hear that we were fulfilling the expectations students had and they were learning more than when they started.”
One of the positive outcomes Renes noted was the creation of a safe space to discuss difficult topics.
“Talking about mental health can be difficult, especially to ask questions that may have been stifled in the past,” she said. “Students are eager and wanting to discuss these topics, so creating the safe space for students to talk openly about their questions and concerns, and to learn knowledge, was important, and we achieved that.”
Another success was the way students completed advocacy projects and the end of the program. “The students that completed advocacy projects did so eagerly, thoughtfully and really expanded their knowledge and skills in the projects they chose. Some took on quite a big project and completed it wonderfully,” Renes said.
Renes hopes these programs can be expanded to other campuses, and that more students will sign up on both current and new campuses. “We have some great Advocates who are educating their fellow students about how great the program is, so using their testimonial is better than any pamphlet.”
See the data below, or click on the images at right to open downloadable PDFs.
Lost&Found Peer2Peer Program 2021-22 Data
South Dakota State University & University of South Dakota
The program brought together student mentors, who got guided practice helping others, with mentees, who are students who need a little support navigating college life. Mentor pairs met two times a month, a minimum of eight times over the course of a semester.
25mentor pairs participated during the 2021-22 school year.
FEEDBACK from MENTEES
What were some important things you learned from your time as a mentee? (selected responses)
Getting more confident about myself
Ways to make the most with my time, and to not blame myself when things go wrong.
Starting to think that I could open up more and trust people but it is ok that I don’t fully
What have you enjoyed most about the program? (selected responses)
Their flexibility where we can still be part of the program while doing our personal stuff. I have improved a lot in term communicating with others and dealing with unusual situations.
The advice from my mentor helped me a lot.
I have enjoyed having someone who is older and more experienced on campus help me out because I know that at one point in time they were just like me.
I enjoyed having a person to vent to, that’s been nice.
Having someone to talk to that is around the same age as me and has more open times to meet and talk.
FEEDBACK from MENTORS
What were some important things you learned from your time as a mentor? (selected responses)
How impactful an hour a week can be on a person.
I think I just learned more about my mindset and how I myself reflect on my life experiences. It’s beneficial for me to have this reflection time and think about how far I’ve come, too!
I feel I learned how to problem solve and think on my feet and evaluate sources for useful solutions and advice.
Be open to different forms of communication. Not everyone has the same experiences throughout college.
Any additional comments? (selected responses)
I loved seeing the growth and progress (mentee’s name) has made throughout the semester.
I enjoyed my time in the program, and I’m thankful to have been a part of such cool change!
I was so grateful to be a part of this program and am looking forward to doing it again next semester!
Lost&Found Advocates Program 2021-22 Data
Dakota Wesleyan University, University of South Dakota, & Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota)
The program included 5 mental health training sessions + an advocacy project, if a student chose to do one.
36 students participated in the 2021-22 school year (14 from DWU, nine from USD, and nine from Carlson).
17students attended all five sessions (five more attended four sessions).
17 students completed advocacy projects (5K, NAMI Night, discussion roundtable, Greek Life event, presentations, art installation).
Lake Area Technical College & Dakota Wesleyan University’s Learn & Earn Program
The program at LATC included 3 mental health training sessionsfacilitated in person in a seminar format. The program for DWU’s Learn & Earn students was 5 mental health training sessions facilitated virtually.
30 LATC students participated in the 2021-22 school year.
9DWU Learn & Earn students participated in the 2021-22 school year.
What did you like about the program? (selected responses)
Understanding difficult issues (i.e. suicide, depression, etc.) and using that information to help people in close proximity.
I really enjoyed the ability to talk to people who knew more about this topic than I did.
I enjoyed all of the statistics and resources that were shared!
That they talked to us openly and told us not to be afraid to talk to someone we trust.
I enjoyed the variety of topics that were covered and how it all tied back to mental health. The information provided portrayed how complex mental health and suicide prevention is.
I liked how open it was and how comfortable it was.
I liked that I was able to meet new people and expose myself to new opportunities on campus.
Having you guys get us engaged
Going into relationships
Learning more about boundaries and being more self aware
It felt like a safe space to talk about your experience and connect it to the curriculum and learn to help others and speak on hard issues.
Learning more about just taking care of yourself
All the recommendations and the reassurance that we have help
It talked about topics that are important to everybody.
On Oct, 27, Senior Prevention Specialist Corey Kennedy led a communications training with 30 staff members of Working Against Violence Inc. in Rapid City. Topics included boundaries, active listening, and crucial conversations.
For more information on Lost&Found’s training opportunities, go here.
Corey Kennedy led a communications training with Working Against Violence Inc in Rapid City.
Corey Kennedy led a communications training with Working Against Violence Inc in Rapid City.
Lost&Found’s programs are reaching more students in more places! The numbers below show where Lost&Found is just after the midpoint of the fall semester.
Learn more about Lost&Found’s student programs here.
19 Students in Advocates program (in three cohorts)
37 Mentees in Peer2Peer program
38 Mentors in Peer2Peer program
7 Lost&Found Chapters (up and running at South Dakota State University, University of South Dakota, Augustana University, and Dakota Wesleyan University with new chapterslaunching soon at Lake Area Technical Colllege, Black Hills State University, and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)
7 Post-Secondary Institutions with Peer2Peer Programs (Currently at South Dakota State University, University of South Dakota, Black Hills State University, and Western Dakota Tech with three more starting in January—Northern State University, S.D. School of MInes & Technology, and Augustana University)
Two student representatives voiced their support for increased mental health options for students at the South Dakota Board of Regents meeting in October.
Katie Conzet, executive director of the Student Federation, and Caleb Weiland, president of the Student Federation, spoke as representatives of 30,000 students in South Dakota’s regental system of post-secondary institutions.
Weiland began with statistics explaining why expanding mental health options is important.
“Sadly, in South Dakota between the ages of 20 and 29, suicide is the leading cause of death. Furthermore, South Dakota just broke their own record for suicides per year. The sad truth is, we can and should do more,” Weiland said. “With the understanding that we will never be able to completely solve this issue in its entirety, we can attempt to better address this issue.”
Conzet and Weiland asked regents to support expanding tele mental health options as recommended in Senate Bill 55 Task Force Recommendation Number 29. They also named other services that would be helpful for students, such as QPR training, peer-to-peer mentoring, group therapy, coping skills training, mental health workshops, and app-based services.
“The need for mental health services is not diminishing anytime soon,” Conzet said. “We need to have the systems and programs in place to equip today’s students with the proper mental health education and resources to identify mental health in themselves and others for the betterment of tomorrow. It’s our responsibility to ensure regental mental health infrastructure can adapt to today’s needs. We look forward to more conversations between the board and the Federation on this very important topic.”
Transcript: Student Federation representatives speak to South Dakota Board of Regents on expanding mental health options
Pam Roberts 00:00
We will move on to report of the Student Federation. Katie, and I think Caleb’s coming up too. There we go.
Katie Conzet 00:13
Good morning, Madam President and members of the Board of Regents. My name is Katie Conzet, and I am the Executive Director of the Student Federation.
Caleb Weiland 00:20
My name is Caleb Weiland. I’m president of the Student Federation. Before we get into a report today, I just want to touch on two things. First, I want to thank almost Dr. Heather Forney for her work … and just advocating on behalf of students to just find a solution to better that situation we have on campuses. And then second, before we dive into our strategic plan update, I want to thank two individuals for pushing me to believe that the strategic plan can actually do something. I’m a changed man from the June meeting. And so I hope you see that today in the report.
Katie Conzet 00:51
All right. So in June, the Federation acted to form a mental health strategic plan, as you might remember. Today, we are here to update the board on our findings and start the constructive conversation. However, before we get into our findings, we want to recognize the work that our mental health professionals and advocates such as the Board of Regents has done and will continue to do to better address these issues.
Caleb Weiland 01:14
To provide a background of information and demonstrate the immense need of why the Federation feel so passionate about calling for increased attention to mental health services on and off all regional campuses, here are a few statistics that represent our motivation. After the COVID 19 pandemic, South Dakota has the eighth highest suicide rate in the nation. Sadly, in South Dakota between the ages of 20 and 29, suicide is the leading cause of death. Furthermore, South Dakota just broke their own record for suicides per year. The sad truth is, we can and should do more. With the understanding that we will never be able to completely solve this issue in its entirety, we can attempt to better address this issue. We, as the elected representatives of over 30,000 students, believe in giving an increased attention and action toward a unified and regental front to combat mental health crisis, the mental health crisis, we stand an affirmation of the Senate Bill 55 Task Force Recommendation Number 29, titled Expand Student Mental Health Options, specifically through telehealth.
Katie Conzet 02:18
The Federation is focused on ensuring students such as those at Black Hill State University-Rapid City and USD Sioux Falls locations and all of our online students are not left out of this discussion. Which is why the investment in tele mental health resources would reach a portion of our peers who already have a lower amount of access to on-campus support systems.
Caleb Weiland 02:38
While our counseling centers find longer wait times for students seeking appointments, and while every campus has an on-call crisis counselor, there are rarely alternative mental health resources for more intermediate-needs students. Currently, from a regental standpoint, the student to counselor ratio, the counselor-to-student ratio is one to 999. The American Counseling Association recommends a counselor-to-student ratio of one to 250. It is not fiscally sustainable nor the most effective approach and use of resources just keep hiring more counselors.
Katie Conzet 03:11
Now we understand that mental health is not a one-size-fits-all problem. It has no silver bullet. An effective approach would be looking at into the expansion and creation of a low-cost and high-impact program. Expanding programs such as QPR training–Question, Persuade and Refer–that equips those trained in addressing signs of suicide crisis and teaches them how to respond. Another program worth looking at is peer-to-peer mentoring. This program pairs an upperclassman with a first-year student who is interested in or the needs of an individual to help them get through their first year of college. Group therapy is an existing program on some campuses that is also worth expanding, as research points to college students suffering largely from stress and time management problems during their first years.
Caleb Weiland 03:55
A few programs worth bringing into the regental system include coping skills training. Coping skills training is based upon giving students the ability to learn how to adapt to situations, take feedback in a non-defensive manner, and better equip our students with resilience training. Additionally, mental health workshops to address time management, stress and depression would be another cost-effective approach at educating students on how to seek help and address mental health issues before they start. Finally, one regental campus has an app that gives intermediate students access to educational modules on a variety of mental health issues. Creating app services regental wide offer students who for one reason or another will not seek counseling but potentially need some potentially need some guidance. By expanding existing and investing in new programs, we can educate campus communities about mental health and push for the destigmatization of seeking mental health resources on and off college campuses.
Katie Conzet 04:50
The need for mental health services is not diminishing anytime soon. New reports show that regental growth is vast, and we the Federation are ecstatic to hear these numbers. However, while this growth is good, we need to have the systems and programs in place to equip today’s students with the proper mental health education and resources to identify mental health in themselves and others for the betterment of tomorrow. It’s our responsibility to ensure regental mental health infrastructure can adapt to today’s needs. We look forward to more conversations between the board and the Federation on this very important topic. And we thank you all for your time.
Pam Roberts 05:27
Thank you very much. Are there any questions from the regents on the report? Yes, Regent Brock–Regent Brock Brown?
Brock Brown 05:35
Either way. Well, thank you so much for making the report. I think that through our conversations, it’s so important that when you said in June that we are going to make this report, and we’re gonna have this task force, now you’ve followed through. And during my time on the board, students have brought two issues to the board. They’ve been successful on one of them. So I hope this is another one, and we can come together and have more conversations, like you said, but what do you think the next steps are, from your perspective from us, with staff and on each individual campus?
Katie Conzet 06:02
Well, the first step, which is kind of probably on everyone’s mind, is funding. So whatever we decide to establish as a federation, whatever the next course of action is, it’s where are we going to get the money for that? So we’ve been working with Dr. Miner, looking at some potential outcomes for that. But otherwise, I mean, we’re here with our issue to hopefully work with you guys in collaboration to come to a conclusion based on that.
Pam Roberts 06:30
Further questions, comments? Yes, Regent Rave?
Tim Rave 06:32
I don’t know that I have a question per se, but may spur some conversation. So I just came back from a meeting in Washington DC with a group of my peers. And obviously, mental health crisis is, you know, not a South Dakota problem. It’s a–it’s a nation problem that’s not only isolated to college campuses. And so, I think I just bring this up for discussion, because I know there’s a lot of tools in that toolbox. And you guys did a fantastic job of laying out, you know, things that I hadn’t even thought of the peer-to-peer counseling and some of these other topics. One thing we didn’t talk about, unless I missed it, was looking at some telehealth options, and then, you know, trying to differentiate between a mental health crisis. And I think Caleb actually talked a little bit about, you know, maybe just someone needs somebody to talk to, and that, you know, feels a little more peer-to-peer to me, but I think, I think as this evolves, and it’s not a problem we’re gonna solve today, if we did, we’d be all rich and retired, because we’d have it figured out, and we’re not going to do that. But I think I do appreciate the conversation. I do appreciate the fact that I think there are some steps we can start taking and start looking at some of these avenues. And so there are some opportunities, I think, to make some some progress.
Pam Roberts 07:37
Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you is really a good presentation, a well thought out and well prepared. So thank you very much. We appreciate it.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Using the CDC’s seven strategies for preventing suicide to guide our work, we spoke with Patty Mayrose (a veteran, a VA nurse, and Moms Demand Action volunteer) and Emily Thomas (the State Chapter Lead for the South Dakota Chapter of Moms Demand Action) about how they create protective environments for those at risk of suicide and improve the mental health landscape in Sioux Falls and South Dakota. Learn more about the Be SMART program, designed to help adults and parents normalize conversations about gun safety and take responsible actions that can prevent child gun deaths and injuries. If you are a veteran or know a veteran (or anyone else) struggling with mental health challenges or facing suicidal thoughts, call 988, then press 1 to be connected to the Veterans Crisis Line.
Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode, we chat with Janet Kittams, CEO of the Helpline Center about the programs and services that they provide, the rollout of the 988 Crisis Line, and how we can improve access of care for those at risk of suicide.
If you or someone you know is facing a mental health crisis, call 988. If you are a veteran facing a mental health crisis, call 988 and then press 1.
A little over two years ago, Lost&Found presented its first Spirit of Resilience Award, an honor that was created to recognize someone who had shown a commitment to improving resilience in our community. This year, Lost&Found established another award, called the DJ Smith-Crawley Doing More to Prevent Suicide Award to honor someone who, like Lost&Found co-founder Smith-Crawley, works to prevent suicide among college students.
For 2022, Brad Hearst of Sioux Falls, S.D., received the Spirit of Resilience Award, and Jennifer Noteboom of Pickstown, S.D., was given the DJ Smith-Crawley Doing More to Prevent Suicide Award.
The awards were presented at the Make Your Mark event in September. Here is the what Lost&Found’s CEO Erik Muckey said at the event:
DJ Smith-Crawley “Doing More to Prevent Suicide” Award – Jennifer Noteboom, Honoree
As many of you know, this year Lost&Found tragically lost one of its founding members. DJ Smith, a former student at USD and a dear friend of mine, lost his life to brain cancer earlier this year. He was incredibly important in helping to create a vision for Lost&Found 12 years ago and facilitate that vision for several years. He is missed dearly, and we at Lost&Found, along with DJ’s family, have chosen to establish an annual award in his honor.
The DJ Crawley Smith Doing More to Prevent Suicide Award is an honor that will be given to a campus partner and volunteer who has gone above and beyond to help to keep students safe and to promote Lost&Found’s vision of “no more suicide.”
Jennifer Noteboom
The recipient of the award this year is Jennifer Noteboom, a former campus counselor at Dakota Wesleyan University. Jennifer, who hails from Pickstown, SD, tragically lost her own son to suicide eight years ago while he was a student at South Dakota State University. His tragic death led Jennifer and her family to look at how they could pay support forward to others so they didn’t experience the same tragedy—and found Lost&Found in the process. From the proceeds of Connor’s memorial fund, Jennifer and her family supported the launch of the South Dakota State University Lost&Found chapter. Since that time, Jennifer has been steadfast in her support of Lost&Found. Through her work as a DWU campus counselor, Jennifer helped Lost and Found build a thriving chapter at Dakota Wesleyan University that has reached hundreds of students over the years. Her kindness and tenacity has helped to keep countless students safe. She’s unable to join us this evening but she did send a note that I will read now:
I recently took the Myers Briggs personality test for the first time in 25 years and discovered I had become an INFJ, an advocate. When I first saw what I’d been classified as I thought, “No way- that can’t be right. Advocates do big things that affect large numbers of people, like, oh, I don’t know, starting a nonprofit that has impacted thousands of young adults. The more I sat with it, though, the more I came to realize that doing small things for a long time can also make a difference. Advocates with a capital A, I am in awe of you and your passion and energy will change the world. If you’re a little a advocate like me, remember that you, too, are making a difference, one caring action at a time. I’m disappointed that I never got the chance to meet DJ- I have the feeling that I would’ve really liked him. I have had the chance to see how much he meant to those of you who knew him and how much of an impact his little project has had on the world. I am incredibly honored to have been chosen as the first recipient of the DJ Smith Crawley Doing More to Prevent Suicide award. I will strive, in my little way, to live up to DJ’s legacy.
3rd Annual Spirit of Resilience Award – Brad Hearst, Honoree
I’m extremely honored tonight to present the 2022 Spirit of Resilience Award to Brad Hearst. I consider Brad a friend and a mentor, and I couldn’t be more pleased to present him with his award. After Brad lost his brother to suicide several years ago, he started an organization to help people who were going through a similar loss. Brad founded Survivors Joining 4 Hope with the goal of alleviating the stress finances can have on families that are going through the most difficult time in their lives. Instead of worrying about funeral costs, families could spend time grieving.Over the years, Brad has created impenetrable ties with dozens of families who have lost loved ones. He has spent thousands of hours meeting with families, counseling them, and supporting them through their grief. He remains in contact with many of these families to this day. This impact on our community is immeasurable, and we’re so lucky to have his generous spirit working on this important issue. Brad, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and for our community. Please join me in honoring Brad Hearst as our 2022 Spirit of Resilience award winner.
On Friday I had the privilege of being presented with the Spirit of Resilience Award by Lost&Found. I am usually an individual who enjoys public speaking but in the moment I got choked up as my good friend Erik presented me the award. It is truly an honor to be recognized for my contributions to community resilience. After my brothers passing I felt confused and lost. Helping individuals through their own grief has helped me address my own grief with his passing. So I really need to thank all the families that have trusted in myself, Survivors Joining For Hope, our board and our volunteers! Please spread the word that organizations like L&F are here to make a difference in the mental health space and support both suicide prevention and postvention care. If you have time please check out their website at resilienttoday.org and share their info with a friend! #Honored#ThankYou#ResilientToday
Lost&Found had set an ambitious goal for Giving Tuesday 2022: Receive donations from 150 donors to unlock a $15,000 challenge gift from Lost&Found supporters Ken & Pat Duncan. That goal was achieved on November 29 with donations from 157 donors, and included more than 60 new donors to Lost&Found. The grand total for fundraising from the event, including the challenge match, was over $34,000.
The campaign was called Support Our Students and provided funding for Lost&Found’s three student programs on college campuses in South Dakota and Minnesota. These programs equip young adults with the tools and knowledge they need to address and advocate for their own mental health needs, provide support to others, and change systems that treat mental health.
Giving Tuesday includes an intense day of social media activity, giving nonprofits such as Lost&Found the chance to reach hundreds of people in one day.
The South Dakota Day of Giving organizes challenges throughout the day that give nonprofits a chance at prizes. This inspired posts such as this one about breakfast:
And this post about mascots:
The social media campaign was in large part organized and implemented by Lost&Found’s Community Engagement Manager Joel Kaskinen. Through these and other posts that provide information about Lost&Found’s work and why it matters, Giving Tuesday helps to build the organization’s online community, as well as increase financial support for its suicide prevention work.
Thank you to all who gave on Giving Tuesday, and to Ken and Pat Duncan for their challenge match!
Editor’s Note: Lost&Found is beginning a regular series of articles and podcasts about research and best practices in mental health, resilience, and suicide prevention. This first article is an overview of the idea of suicide prevention as something that requires a public health approach, as well as of the seven prevention strategies that our work is based on.
Read and download this article as a printable PDF by clicking on the image above.
“Suicide is a public health problem,” U.S. Surgeon General Satcher wrote in 1999, adding that suicide prevention requires a public health approach.
While suicide is—by definition—an individual act, suicide affects and is influenced by all levels of society—individuals, their relationships, communities, and society as a whole. This understanding of suicide as part of a larger system is the basis for the suicide prevention strategies developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and those strategies in turn are the basis for the programs developed and implemented by Lost&Found.
This article gives a brief history of this approach to suicide prevention and an overview of the CDC’s seven suicide prevention strategies. Future articles will look more closely at the seven strategies and the Lost&Found programs that are working to carry them out.
Suicide prevention as a societal concern: A brief history
Who can prevent a suicide?
If you had asked this question in 1958, when the first suicide prevention center in the United States opened in Los Angeles (Morris, 2011), the answers probably would have been limited to a small circle of people: The people with suicidal ideation themselves; perhaps the people closest to them, who may have noticed signs or who were confided in; and those who were trained in crisis intervention.
The rest of society could sympathize and support, perhaps, but for most people, there was no active role to play unless (and one hoped it never happened) thoughts of suicide struck them or a loved one.
By the late 1990s, that view was changing. A key pivot point was in 1998, when stakeholders gathered in Reno, Nevada, for the first National Suicide Prevention Conference (U.S. Public Health Service, 2001), which resulted in 81 recommendations for action. The key points from the conference indicated a shift in suicide prevention from solely focusing on individuals to recognizing the role that society more broadly could play in preventing suicide:
Suicide prevention must recognize and affirm the value, dignity, and importance of each person.
Suicide is not solely the result of illness or inner conditions. The feelings of hopelessness that contribute to suicide can stem from societal conditions and attitudes. Therefore, everyone concerned with suicide prevention shares a responsibility to help change attitudes and eliminate the conditions of oppression, racism, homophobia, discrimination, and prejudice.
Some groups are disproportionately affected by these societal conditions, and some are at greater risk for suicide.
Individuals, communities, organizations, and leaders at all levels should collaborate to promote suicide prevention.
The success of this strategy ultimately rests with individuals and communities across the United States. (Office of the Surgeon General, 2012)
In 1999, then-U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher issued a national call to action developed from the findings from the Reno conference. It included this explanation of a view of suicide prevention that looks beyond the individual:
“Suicide is a public health problem that requires an evidence-based approach to prevention. In concert with the clinical medical approach, which explores the history and health conditions that could lead to suicide in a single individual, the public health approach focuses on identifying and understanding patterns of suicide and suicidal behavior throughout a group or population. The public health approach defines the problem, identifies risk factors and causes of the problem, develops interventions evaluated for effectiveness, and implements such interventions widely in a variety of communities.” (U.S. Public Health Service, 1999)
In 2000, a Federal Steering Group was formed to respond to this call to action, which resulted in the publication of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention in 2001. It included 11 goals and 68 objectives based on the framework Satcher had put forward in the call to action. The strategy document was a planted flag of sorts for those working in suicide prevention, giving them a common understanding and language to work from, as well as a way to direct attention and resources to suicide prevention efforts. One result of this strategy, for example, was the development of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-TALK/8255), which connects callers to a responder at the closest crisis center.
Gathering evidence and best practices
Over the past 21 years, the public health understanding of suicide prevention has increasingly shaped the progress and development of the field, and researchers have gathered evidence of what public health approaches are effective. In 2017, the CDC published Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices (Stone et al, 2017). Like other technical packages produced by the CDC, the document compiles a set of strategies that communities can use to achieve a desired outcome—in this case, the prevention of suicide—along with specific approaches to advance the strategy, as well as evidence for why those strategies work. This technical package guides much of the suicide prevention work happening now across the United States, including the programs offered by Lost&Found.
Dr. Deb Stone of the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the authors of the technical package and spoke with Lost&Found in a phone interview (Stone D., 2022).
The process of creating the technical package involved a review of the literature and many conversations with subject matter experts, Stone explained. “We really looked for programs, practices, and policies that showed evidence for reducing actual suicide or suicide attempts, or that impacted on suicide risk and protective factors. The evidence we found … had to come from rigorous scientific studies such as meta-analyses or systematic reviews, or from randomized, controlled trials, just to name a few of the types of studies that we were looking at.”
The public health approach underlying this work meant that the researchers had a broad view of whom to target with their efforts. This includes people all along the timeline of a suicide.
“We knew that we needed to find strategies that would help to prevent suicide risk in the first place—sometimes called primary prevention or upstream prevention,” Stone said. “We wanted to help support people who were already at increased risk, and then also work to prevent re-attempts among people who may have attempted, and help support people who have suffered a suicide loss.”
Another viewpoint that is critical to the understanding of suicide prevention, Stone said, is recognizing that, while suicide is an individual act and is influenced by factors in that individual, it is also influenced by factors in a person’s relationships, the community, and society at large.
“The contributors or the causes of suicide occur at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels, and those four levels comprise the social ecological model,” Stone said.
For example, at the individual level, people with mental health challenges, substance use, or who have attempted suicide in the past are at increased risk of suicide. At the relationship level, a recent breakup, the death of a loved one, or having been the victim of violence increase risk. At the community level, increased risk can result from difficulty accessing mental health care. And at the societal level, suicide risk is affected by whether policies allow easy access to lethal means such as firearms and medications, as well as societal stigmas around mental illness or seeking help.
“To have the biggest impact, we may need to consider strategies that will address factors across all these levels,” Stone said. “Sometimes, that’s where we get stuck, because we might only focus on one thing, but we really need to be taking a broader perspective and a broader approach.”
This wider view can help to combat a common misconception about suicide—that it is based on a single factor.
“In our desire to understand why someone would take their own life, we sometimes rush to conclusions and point to one thing,” Stone said. “But this really minimizes what the person was going through, and data tell us … that there are many factors involved. And so, if we’re going to prevent suicide, we really need to consider all of these factors.”
Another common misconception about suicide is that a person who dies by suicide was weak or selfish, and an evidence-based public health approach suggests ways to combat this misconception as well.
“People who are struggling with thoughts of suicide are in immense emotional and sometimes physical pain. And this pain is typically related to the culmination or a confluence of many factors. So when you’re in this level of pain, the options and the solutions can become so narrowed that suicide may seem to be the only way out,” Stone said. “We want to prevent people from ever getting to the point of having a crisis like that. We want to prevent situations that spurred these crises from occurring in the first place.
“But if we are past that point, there’s still a lot we can do to help people. We can help destigmatize getting help … and we can make sure that professionals are equipped with ways of helping people in suicidal crisis by training on effective approaches for suicide prevention. And then we can all, working together in a society, learn the warning signs and ask the hard questions. ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ We know that this will not put the thought in someone’s head, and it can actually break the silence that is so detrimental.”
The CDC’s seven strategies for suicide prevention
The CDC’s technical package on suicide prevention distills its recommendations into seven strategies that “are intended to work in combination and reinforce each other to prevent suicide,” according to the document (Stone et al, 2017, p. 12). The strategies, as a whole, approach suicide prevention at all four levels of the social ecological model (individual, relationships, communities, and society).
What follows is a summary of each of these strategies from the CDC document and one or two key approaches to implementing that strategy.
Strategy 1: Strengthen economic supports.
Economic and financial strain, such as job loss, long periods of unemployment, reduced income, difficulty covering medical, food, and housing expenses, and even the anticipation of such financial stress may increase an individual’s risk for suicide or may indirectly increase risk by exacerbating related physical and mental health problems. Buffering these risks can, therefore, potentially protect against suicide. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 15)
“We sometimes forget the real devastation that can impact people and that people can feel due to financial and economic concerns,” Stone said.
Some of the ways to improve those situations and help prevent suicide include increases to the minimum wage and policies that allow people to stay in their homes or find secure housing.
Strategy 2: Strengthen access and delivery of suicide care.
[M]ental illness is an important risk factor for suicide. State-level suicide rates have also been found to be correlated with general mental health measures such as depression. Findings from the National Comorbidity Survey indicate that relatively few people in the U.S. with mental health disorders receive treatment for those conditions. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 19)
“This strategy is focused on making sure that all people have access to quality care, especially in underserved areas such a rural communities, and that once people are engaged in care, that they don’t fall through the proverbial cracks as they transition in and out of the healthcare system,” Stone said.
One approach for implementing this strategy is remote mental health care, also called telemental health, which became more common during the Covid-19 pandemic. Another is ensuring that mental health conditions are covered in health insurance policies.
Strategy 3: Create protective environments.
Prevention efforts that focus not only on individual behavior change (e.g., help-seeking, treatment interventions) but on changes to the environment can increase the likelihood of positive behavioral and health outcomes. Creating environments that address risk and protective factors where individuals live, work, and play can help prevent suicide. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 23)
One way in which the environment can be addressed in terms of suicide prevention is access to lethal means.
“We know that reducing access to lethal means such as a firearms, especially among people at risk of suicide, can really make all of the difference in saving someone’s life,” Stone said, because “putting time and space between someone who is thinking about suicide and the means to carry it out is absolutely critical.”
Another approach is improving policies and social norms around help seeking—both allowing and encouraging people to take time off from work to seek mental health care, for example.
Strategy 4: Promote connectedness.
[S]tudies suggest a positive association between social capital (as measured by social trust and community/neighborhood engagement), and improved mental health. Connectedness and social capital together may protect against suicidal behaviors by decreasing isolation, encouraging adaptive coping behaviors, and by increasing belongingness, personal value, and worth, to help build resilience in the face of adversity. Connectedness can also provide individuals with better access to formal supports and resources. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 27)
“As far back as the late 1880s, we had this great sociologist, Emile Durkheim, who told us that social connectedness … is a protective factor. And what that means is that it can protect people from ever becoming suicidal in the first place, and it can reduce the chances that someone would ever attempt suicide,” Stone said.
Stone would like to see more research in this area, since the limited research on connectedness and mental health is promising. For example, people working together on a community greening initiative showed reductions in anxiety and depression. “In addition, pride in the community would increase, and people would support each other through those kinds of engagement activities,” she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic limited our usual ways of connecting, which shows what can happen when the connectedness we typically rely on isn’t available: Anxiety and depression increased 25 percent worldwide in the first year of the pandemic, according to a brief by the World Health Organization (Brunier, 2022). The stress of social isolation was cited as one of the causes.
Strategy 5: Teach coping and problem-solving skills.
The inability to employ adequate strategies to cope with immediate stressors or identify and find solutions for problems has been characterized among suicide attempters. Teaching and providing youth with the skills to tackle everyday challenges and stressors is, therefore, an important developmental component to suicide prevention. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 31)
“We know that teaching people—not just kids, but kids and adults—how to cope and solve conflicts can really go a long way to preventing crises that sometimes escalate to the point that someone is thinking about suicide,” Stone said. “It’s not often discussed, but problems in relationships such as bullying or breakups or other kinds of conflicts are some of the most common contributors to suicide. And many of us were, frankly, never really taught how to cope with conflict or how to problem-solve. But the good news is that there are skills that we can all learn and excel at with practice.”
Programs that teach these life skills to children are having payoffs down the road in preventing the risk of suicide and other adverse outcomes. These programs could be scaled up and expanded to reach more people, including adults, Stone said.
Strategy 6: Identify and support people at risk.
In order to decrease suicide, care of, and attention to, vulnerable populations is necessary, as these groups tend to experience suicidal behavior at higher than average rates. Such vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to, individuals with lower socio-economic status or who are living with a mental health problem; people who have previously attempted suicide; veterans and active duty military personnel; individuals who are institutionalized, have been victims of violence, or are homeless; individuals of sexual minority status; and members of certain racial and ethnic minority groups. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 35)
This strategy works to support people who are at high risk of suicide or who are known to have thoughts of suicide. The good news is that treatments are showing great promise in helping with mental health conditions and reducing the suicide risk.
“The evidence for different forms of therapy, such as cognitive behavior therapy, especially with collaborative care components, is really mounting, and that’s really exciting,” Stone said.
An approach to implement this strategy is to continue the research for these programs and to provide more training for practitioners.
Strategy 7: Lessen harms and prevent future risk.
Millions of people are bereaved by suicide every year in the United States and throughout the world. Risk of suicide and suicide risk factors has been shown to increase among people who have lost a friend/peer, family member, co-worker, or other close contact to suicide. Care and attention to the bereaved is therefore of high importance. Despite often good intentions, media and others responding to suicide may add to this risk. (Stone et al, 2017, p. 41)
This strategy aims to help people after a suicide has taken place. This includes people who were directly connected to the person who died by suicide, ensuring that they receive support and can access professional mental health care if they need it. This strategy also includes those in the community or society more broadly who hear that a suicide has happened. One important way to implement this strategy is to learn better ways to talk about suicide, especially for those in the media.
“We still have a long way to go in safe reporting,” Stone said. “This really means avoiding sensationalizing a suicide, describing the details or means of suicide, or glamorizing somebody who died by suicide, because we know that those things can inadvertently increase risk for people who may be vulnerable or thinking about suicide themselves. … This is an area where we can continue to promote positive messaging and resources and make sure to get people the help that they need.”
Looking ahead
A lot has happened in the world and in the field of suicide prevention in the nearly five years since the CDC’s technical package of suicide prevention strategies was released. While not all the developments have been positive, many significant findings and events of the past five years have strengthened the evidence for and emphasized the importance of a public health approach to suicide prevention.
Perhaps the biggest change has come from the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed the way that people live, work, and gather with friends and family. Many have died from the virus, so many others are dealing with grief; many are dealing with poorer health because of long Covid; and many immunocompromised people remain socially isolated because the risk of Covid remains high for them. These changes have affected mental health across the globe (World Health Organization, 2022). “There are increases in anxiety and substance use and distress, and even in suicidal thinking, particularly among young people but also among people who have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19,” Stone said.
The CDC is working on a new release of the technical package, to be made public sometime this year. The seven strategies will remain, Stone said, backed up by new evidence. Some of this is based on improvements in data collection—researchers now have the ability to track and monitor data related to suicide ideation and suicide attempts in closer to real time, Stone said, and machine learning can help to forecast suicide trends in the future. New studies have also provided additional evidence to support some of the programs and policies recommended in the 2017 report, as well as evidence to support new programs and policies.
Stone is also looking forward to the way that the development and promotion of a three-digit number (988) for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will increase support for people with suicidal thoughts. That number will go live in July.
“We have a long way to go, but we’re certainly making great strides to help individuals and communities reduce this incredible burden of suicide,” Stone said.
Office of the Surgeon General. (2012). Appendix C: Brief History of Suicide Prevention in the United States. 2020 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General (US); National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (US). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK109918/
Stone, D. (2022, January 27). Interview with Dr. Deb Stone. (H. Marttila-Losure, Interviewer)
Stone, D.M., Holland, K.M., Bartholow, B., Crosby, A.E., Davis, S., and Wilkins, N. (2017). Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policies, Programs, and Practices. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicideTechnicalPackage.pdf
Lost&Found is launching a newly revamped website that reflects the many changes that the organization has had in the past two years.
The address, resilienttoday.org, is the same, but beyond that, most of the content has been updated or newly written. It also reflects new branding, including a new ampersand logo, that was implemented in August 2021.
The biggest changes are the sections describing Lost&Found’s programs. The organization started in 2010 as a student-led nonprofit mostly doing its work through student chapters on college campuses in South Dakota. While many of those chapters are still active, in the past two years, Lost&Found has also adopted other ways to pursue its vision of ending suicide for young adults. Lost&Found now works in three distinct program areas: Student Programs, Research & Evaluation Services, and Education & Advocacy. Each of these program areas includes exciting new programs, such is the Peer2Peer Mentorship program, bringing together students who need a little help with other students who can help to provide it, and the Campus Resilience Index, which assesses the suicide prevention capacity of college and technical school campuses and their communities.
Just a few years ago, these programs were still in the “dream” stages. Now they are being implemented and helping young adults in South Dakota.
As the organization’s work has grown, so has its staff, and that change is reflected on the staff page. Lost&Found now employs 13 resilience-minded individuals, plus one open position.
The organization’s Resources page has also been updated with links to relevant content and services. A new section on the website outlines six ways that supporters can get involved with Lost&Found’s work.
“This beautiful redesigned website showcases the breadth of truly innovative, meaningful work being done by Lost&Found’s staff,” said Heidi Marttila-Losure, Lost&Found’s Director of Communications. “We hope that it helps people understand this work, as well as how they can be a part of Lost&Found’s suicide prevention efforts. We’ve come a long way in just a few years, and there’s potential to accelerate even more with broader support. We invite people to explore the site, learn more, and get involved.”
Lost&Found’s Campus Resilience Index was featured in a story by Public News Service on March 10. The story, “Evaluating College Campuses on Suicide-Prevention Resources,” highlights how the CRI could help institutions of higher education find evaluate their mental health resources—where they have strengths, and where they could improve. Lost&Found’s executive director Erik Muckey is quoted in the story.
That story has been picked up by more than 200 media outlets so far, according to the news service.
Read the story here. Learn more about the Campus Resilience Index here.
Dennis John “DJ” Crawley-Smith, who as a high school student was the visionary who developed the ideas and creation of Lost&Found and who led the organization in its early years, died of brain cancer Monday, March 21, at his home in Seattle. He was 30 years old.
“For more than 15 years, I’ve called DJ a friend and partner in this work, and the news of his passing is heartbreaking for me, personally, and our team at Lost&Found,” said Lost&Found Co-Founder and Executive Director Erik Muckey. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his husband, Ben, and his parents, siblings, family, and countless friends throughout the world. DJ has touched many lives and will continue to touch lives well beyond his time here with us.”
Crawley-Smith grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, and graduated from Mitchell High School in 2010. His work that became Lost&Found started in 2008 as an informal Facebook network with a wish to “do more” to prevent suicide. In a year, that Facebook group grew to more than 3,600 members.
Crawley-Smith wrote about this work in 2020: “(T)he school project that becomes Lost&Found focused heavily on making sure people didn’t feel alone. I would make weekly and monthly tasks for thousands of members to complete. We would litter the high school with sticky notes to brighten our peers’ days, write letters to our mentors and friends to show they matter, you get the idea. At the heart of this project was that we as a community can be better to our neighbors and friends to prevent mental health issues all while attempting to reduce the stigma surrounding it.”
His own lived experience with mental health stigma, as well as stigmatization of the LGBTQ+ community during his teenage years, fueled his motivation to help others at a young age.
He gave presentations about this work at state and national FCCLA conferences. On the way home from the 2010 National FCCLA Conference, where the presentation had been well-received, a conversation about what should happen next led to the idea to start a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention. Crawley-Smith brought together four trusted friends—Matt Bartl, Brittany Levine, Kristina (Debus) Hill, and Erik Muckey—to form the initial Lost&Found Board of Directors with him in September 2010. All five had recently graduated from Mitchell area high schools and were pursuing college degrees that fall.
Crawley-Smith served as the President of the Board of Directors for the organization’s initial four years (2010-2014). He worked alongside Muckey and a handful of friends and classmates to launch the first Lost&Found chapter at the University of South Dakota in 2011. New chapters were formed at South Dakota State University (2012) and Dakota State University (2013) shortly thereafter. In 2014, he handed over the reins of the nonprofit to Muckey, who has led the organization since.
A video of Lost&Found’s history through the organization’s 10-year anniversary in 2020 includes an interview with Crawley-Smith: “We really wanted to help teens and young adults who were suffering from mental health issues and suicide ideologies, and the greater communities, who are struggling so much to discuss topics that, at that point and time and even still now, are incredibly taboo.”
In addition to Lost&Found, Crawley-Smith made a difference in many other ways. As a student at the University of South Dakota, he was a proud brother of Phi Delta Theta, as well as serving as the Vice President of the Student Government Association (2012-2013) and Executive Director of the South Dakota Student Federation (2013-2014). He was a fierce advocate for students and made significant strides to improve student health on campus, including the passage of a campus smoking ban, new sexual assault policies for the South Dakota Board of Regents, and the creation of multiple mental health student awareness programs through Lost&Found.
After graduating from USD in 2014, he joined Susan Wismer’s South Dakota gubernatorial campaign as a Call-Time Manager. Wismer’s campaign was the first ticket for governor and lieutenant governor in South Dakota history to include two women, with Susy Blake joining Wismer on the ballot for Lieutenant Governor.
After the campaign, Crawley-Smith joined the Peace Corps in 2015, serving in Tanzania for nearly two years until an emerging health condition—later diagnosed as brain cancer—brought him back to the United States.
Upon his return stateside, DJ served briefly as a teacher in the Mitchell School District before completing a Master of Arts degree from the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in 2019. Crawley-Smith then served as a Census Field Supervisor for the US Census Bureau leading into the most recent census (2020). He married his husband, Ben Crawley, on August 6, 2021.
Mourning his death are his husband; his parents, Pat and Veronnica Smith; his siblings, Shea, Emmy, and Andrew; many family members and countless friends.
His work with Lost&Found will live on far beyond his short time on this Earth.
“DJ’s efforts to ‘do more to prevent suicide’ will be one of his greatest legacies, standing ahead of his time and living on for time immemorial,” Muckey said. “We are forever indebted and grateful to DJ for the vision he shared and his courage to pull together friends, family, and community members toward solving one of our country’s greatest challenges.”
Crawley-Smith reflected on this legacy himself in 2020, at the time of Lost&Found’s 10th anniversary: “Ten years ago we were a group of fresh-into-college kids with an idea that we wanted to help people who were like us. We wanted to bring a voice to mental health well-being. Now, Lost&Found is serving communities across the State of South Dakota and only continues to grow. Heck, it even helps me. I recognize that there is a vast spectrum between ‘Lost’ and ‘Found,’ and I don’t think any of us are purely one way or the other. And I think if I am not quite sure where I land, I am probably leaning left of center. But the neat thing about that is I am working on myself. I think it is okay to not always be okay. I also think we should all continue building our abilities to support ourselves and support others.”
Lost&Found is a South Dakota-based 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that aims to do more to eliminate suicide among young adults in the United States. Lost&Found trains advocates, provides evaluation and research services, and connects fragmented mental health systems with relevant, evidence-based information and tools. Much of the organization’s current work is on college and tech school campuses in South Dakota and Minnesota. Lost&Found’s programs and digital content reached more than 2.3 million people in 2021. Learn more at resilienttoday.org.
Keloland talked with Lost&Found Executive Director Erik Muckey about the death of DJ Crawley-Smith on Thursday.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Erik Muckey gets to honor his friend every day he goes to work.
But that’s made the last few days harder for Muckey as his longtime friend and co-founder of Lost&Found – Dennis John (DJ) Crawley-Smith – died Monday morning from brain cancer, which was diagnosed in 2016. Crawley-Smith was 30-years-old and had recently married his husband Ben Crawley in August 2021.
“It’s incredibly hard,” Muckey said. “You don’t get into your early 30s thinking you’re going to lose your close friend to cancer. Cancer sucks. That’s the simplest way I can put it.”
Read the rest of the Keloland story here. Read more about Crawley-Smith’s legacy with Lost&Found here.
This spring, students who are part of Dakota Wesleyan University’s Learn & Earn Program have learned from a mental health curriculum developed by Lost&Found.
Education & Advocacy Manager Courtney Young wrote the curriculum and presented it to the students over five monthly sessions via videoconferencing link.
“It has been rewarding to engage with the Learn & Earn students over the past several weeks,” Young said. “We know the transition to college and adulthood can be stressful, but together we can help students learn to navigate their own mental health.”
This curriculum is an alternative way of presenting content from the Lost&Found Advocates program. The L&F Advocates program trains students to better understand and care for their own mental health, equips students with tools for resilience and advocacy, and reduces the stigma of mental health in their campus communities. Topics include defining mental health and resilience, understanding coping skills and self-care, reflecting on relationships and ways to set healthy boundaries, and how to find help or help others to improve mental health.
The Learn & Earn program is a 16-month program in Pierre that allows DWU students to earn an associate’s degree with the option to complete a bachelor’s degree. It’s a pathway to landing a professional career that consists of hands-on learning experiences, real-world simulations, and individual and group projects paired with specialized speakers. This program does not require testing or traditional grading scales, making it an appeal to students who don’t thrive in the traditional learning environment.
At $18,000, the Learn & Earn program is more affordable than most two-year programs in the United States. Students are matched with a professional career coach for the duration of the program, who mentors them and provides guidance and structured support.
The Learn & Earn program allows students the opportunity to gain professional work experience in both paid and unpaid internships while earning credit/professional credentials in their desired industry. Fields of study and certification include Business Administration, Social Media Marketing, Project Management, Foundations of Social and Human Services, Data Analytics, and Insurance and Banking.
In addition to this work through the Learn & Earn Program, two other Lost&Found student programs are available at Dakota Wesleyan University—a campus chapter, which has been active since 2019, and the Advocates program, which started in 2021.
A “5K for Mental Health” event in Mitchell on Saturday, April 9, drew 49 participants on a windy spring day.
The event was the final project of Adaya Plastow, a student who had gone through the Lost&Found Advocates program at Dakota Wesleyan University this year. Each student who takes part in the Advocates mental health training program chooses a final capstone project to act on what they’ve learned, and Plastow chose to do a 5K to raise awareness of mental health issues.
“This project was really dear to me because I had a friend who recently passed away from suicide,” Plastow said in a Facebook video. “This was my way of doing a dedication to him and a way of helping raise awareness that mental health is real, and suicide is real, and we’re all in this together and we can help each other out through whatever we’re going through.”
The Facebook video was put together by Shealay Smith, Miss Teen South Dakota International 2022, who also wants to advocate for mental health through her platform.
Other DWU Advocates students who helped with the project were Isabella Veffredo, Mckinnely Mull, Elisabeth Ortis, and Morgan Oedekoven.
The L&F Advocates program trains students to better understand and care for their own mental health, equips students with tools for resilience and advocacy, and reduces the stigma of mental health on campus. Learn more about the program here.
