Month: June 2025

Let’s save lives through acceptance this Pride Month

Posted on June 3, 2025 by - Blog

Pride Month heart

This June, Lost&Found (along with many others) is celebrating LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month. We will be sharing suicide prevention resources at Pride festivals throughout the month:

What is Pride Month, and why does it matter to Lost&Found? Read on!

 

What is Pride Month?

Pride Month honors the struggle for recognition and equal rights by those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Originally focused on gay rights, Pride Month now covers a broader spectrum. The acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (or Queer), Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, and Other Identities (+).

It’s also a time for celebrating the accomplishments of LGBTQIA2S+ people, as well as a time for people to gather and find encouragement and community together.

Pride Month is celebrated in June because that’s when the Stonewall riots, an important event in the history of gay rights, took place in 1969. In the 1960s, when homosexual acts were illegal and homosexuals were often publicly shunned and the target of violence, police frequently raided gay bars, arresting the customers. On June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City, patrons refused to cooperate and fought back. The riots that night and in the nights following led to a sea change: People who had hidden who they were before were empowered to be open about who they were, and the cause of gay rights gained strength throughout the nation and the world.

The use of the word “pride” to describe celebrations of LGBTQIA2S+ was encouraged by a gay activist named L. Craig Schoonmaker. “A lot of people were very repressed. They were conflicted internally, and didn’t know how to come out and be proud,” Schoonmaker said in an interview with The Allusionist podcast in 2015. “That’s how the movement was most useful, because they thought, ‘Maybe I should be proud.’”

 

Why is Lost&Found celebrating Pride Month?

Unfortunately, there is a connection between suicide risk and LGBTQIA2S+ young people.

The Trevor Project’s 2024 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health shows that rates of suicidal thoughts remain high among LGBTQ youth. Among the key findings:

  • Forty-six percent of LGBTQ+ youth ages 13-17 surveyed seriously considered suicide in the past year, including half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
  • Sixteen percent of LGBTQ+ youth ages 13-17 surveyed attempted suicide in the past year.

While rates among the general young adult population have also trended higher recently, the risk is significantly higher among the LGBTQ population. In South Dakota, 17.1 percent of 9th- through 12th-graders said they had considered suicide in 2023. And 8.4 percent said they had attempted suicide in the 12 months before the survey. (These statistics are also, of course, unacceptably high.)

“Our efforts to prevent suicide among youth and young adults cannot be taken seriously if we do not live out our work as allies to the LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit communities of South Dakota and the surrounding region,” said Lost&Found Co-Founder Erik Muckey. “We have a responsibility to understand and respond to the roots of suicide risk for LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit South Dakotans. I strongly encourage all South Dakotans, especially community leaders, around our state and region to join Lost&Found in celebrating Pride Month while recognizing our collective role in preventing suicide.”

 

What factors affect suicide risk among LGBTQ young adults?

Mental health and suicide risk among LGBTQ youth is closely related to how the youth are treated. According to the 2024 survey:

  • “The overwhelming majority (90%) of LGBTQ+ young people said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics. Over half (53%) said their well-being was negatively impacted by politics a lot.”
  • “Nearly 2 in 5 (39%) LGBTQ+ young people said that they or their family have considered moving to a different state because of anti-LGBTQ+ politics and laws.”
  • Suicide attempts are higher for LGBTQ youth who have been physically threatened or harmed due to either their sexual orientation or gender identity (25 percent) compared to those who have not (8 percent).
  • Suicide attempts are higher for LGBTQ youth who have experienced discrimination (18 percent) compared to those who have not (7 percent).
  • Suicide attempts are higher for LGBTQ youth subjected to (27 percent) or threatened with (27 percent) conversion therapy compared to those who have not (9 percent).
  • Suicide attempts are higher for LGBTQ youth who were bullied (18 percent) compared to those who were not (6 percent). Nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth experienced bullying in the past year.
  • Suicide attempts are higher for LGBTQ youth who do not have access to LGBTQ-affirming spaces compared to those who do. (Thirteen percent of those whose home is not LGBTQ-affirming attempted suicide, compared to 9 percent who have a home that is affirming; for schools, the percentages were 14 percent for non-LGBTQ-affirming and 10 percent for affirming.)

 

How can we help?

The LGBTQ+ young people who responded to the survey suggested ways in which people can best show their support and acceptance. The top ways were “Trusting that I know who I am,” “Standing up for me,” and “Not supporting politicians that advocate for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.” Here are the top ten suggestions:

“For the first time, we asked respondents to share a message of advice or encouragement to other young people in the LGBTQ+ community. There is no doubt that this has been a challenging year for LGBTQ+ young people. Yet despite these challenges, including the historic wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that has targeted them, these young people remain powerful, optimistic, and resilient,” according to the survey authors.

 

This article was first published in June 2022 and was updated June 3, 2025. 

Whitney Bischoff to lead Lost&Found’s student programs

Posted on June 3, 2025 by - Blog, Student Programs

Lost&Found’s Whitney Bischoff is moving into a new role at Lost&Found.

Whitney Bischoff smiles in front of an outdoor water scene.

Whitney Bischoff

Bischoff, who has served as a Community Prevention Advisor for universities in western South Dakota since early 2024, will now lead the Student Programs Department as Student Programs Manager.

Bischoff is stepping into the spot that was vacated by Carrie Jorgensen, who assumed the role of Executive Director last month.

“Lost&Found has an incredible Student Programs Team, and I cannot wait to continue to work with our team and campus partners to enhance and expand our programming,” Bischoff said.

Lost&Found offers two key programs at the postsecondary institutions it serves: Peer2Peer Mentorship (which brings together student mentors, who get guided practice helping others, with mentees, who are students who need a little support navigating college life) and Campus Chapters (which are recognized student organization affiliates where student leaders support peers, create connections, and partner with local leaders to prioritize mental health and suicide prevention in their campus communities).

“One of my favorite things about our work is seeing the immense impact it can have on our communities,” Bischoff said. “I’m looking forward to building relationships with our current campuses that have engaged in programming but also expand our reach throughout South Dakota and the region. I love how our work supplements the work already being done on our college campuses and provides another layer of support for both students and employees.
“The work we do is truly life-changing, and I love working with a team that can extend that reach, build skills in our young people, and truly leave a mark in our communities.”
Bischoff is also a certified QPR and EveryDay Strong instructor for western South Dakota, and she will continue leading those trainings as the schedule of her new role allows.

Partnership with Marsh McLennan Agency supports Workplace Resilience Index

Posted on June 26, 2025 by - Blog, Research & Evaluation Services, Workplace Resilience Index

Above: Gesine Ziebarth and Erik Muckey of Lost&Found met with Karlie Solum of Marsh McLennan Agency. The two organizations partnered in the development of the Workplace Resilience Index, a tool to help workplaces better support their employees’ mental health.

 

This article also appeared in the Sioux Falls Business Journal. 

 

Organizations now have a new tool to help them better understand and tackle mental health challenges.

According to Lost&Found, increasing reports of mental health conditions and suicide risk are straining workplaces in South Dakota and the surrounding region. That was the impetus for Marsh McLennan Agency in Sioux Falls and Lost&Found to partner in the creation of the Workplace Resilience Index, an adaptation of Lost&Found’s highly successful Campus Resilience Index.

Marsh McLennan Agency has long championed mental health care for its employees and had made it a priority, but leaders weren’t sure if their approach was truly meeting employee needs.

MMA and Lost&Found met to discuss what gaps might exist in their current programs and how Lost&Found’s expertise could help by providing a comprehensive assessment and support system that also could be utilized by other organizations. The MMA team provided guidance on what would be most helpful to HR departments of organizations. Through a series of workshop sessions, Lost&Found took research and best practices for mental health and suicide prevention and adapted them to the workplace context with help from MMA. Ultimately, they produced a product called the Workplace Resilience Index, a workplace-specific tool that results in an action plan that can be implemented for any size of organization.

The Workplace Resilience Index will give organizations of all kinds — for profit, nonprofit and government agencies — the ability to look holistically at their mental health challenges and current solutions. The tool collects data across a variety of primary sources such as employee survey responses and secondary sources such as benefits packages to determine what strengths and challenges exist in current prevention strategies. This allows organizations to see where they need help and where they may need to apply resources.

“We recognized the importance of taking an objective look at our employee mental health offerings,” said Karlie Solum, director of community relations for MMA Dakotas. “By consulting with Lost&Found, we aimed to ensure that we had all our bases covered. Our goal is to proactively address mental health needs so we may never have to find ourselves looking back and thinking, ‘We could’ve done more.’”

Marsh McLennan Agency continues to support the enhancement and expansion of the WRI program in hopes of benefiting other businesses regionally. This comes alongside many other mental health investments in the community, including the recent announcement of the $1 million donation to Sanford Health for a pediatric mental health initiative.

The partners identified that most organizations understood that mental health was an important challenge to address, but they didn’t know the extent of the problem, nor did they have the resources they needed.

“There is a definite lack of resources available to organizations to help them recognize and address the mental health issues of their employees,” said Erik Muckey, interim development director of Lost&Found. “For example, all 66 counties in South Dakota currently face a serious shortage of mental health professionals.”

Investing in the mental health of employees “can make a huge difference,” Muckey continued, “and the Workplace Resilience Index is an innovative way to address an organization’s mental health and well-being.”

The Workplace Resilience Index is based on the seven evidence-based suicide prevention strategies identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Suicide Prevention Resource for Action:

  1. Strengthen economic supports.
  2. Create protective environments.
  3. Improve access and delivery of suicide care.
  4. Promote healthy connections.
  5. Teach coping and problem-solving skills.
  6. Identify and support people at risk.
  7. Lessen harms and prevent future risk.

The WRI’s broad, thorough view of workplace prevention efforts can help guide decisions on investments in existing or new prevention efforts that will best serve employees. The information also helps Lost&Found better support workplace partners implementing suicide prevention programs and policies.

The Workplace Resilience Index can drive action, provide opportunities to learn from peers in other organizations and create a comprehensive understanding of mental health needs in the workplace.

It is not a ranking but rather a holistic assessment of what an organization’s mental needs are now and what resources or programs they have in place to provide support. It is a partnership-driven process that assesses mental health and suicide prevention practices in the workplace, identifies areas of strength in prevention and recommends practical approaches to improve workplace mental health.

To learn more:

 

About Marsh McLennan Agency

Marsh McLennan Agency, a business of Marsh, is a leading provider of business insurance, employee health and benefits, retirement and wealth, and private client insurance solutions across U.S. and Canada. Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC) is a global leader in risk, strategy and people, advising clients in 130 countries across four businesses: Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman. With annual revenue of $24 billion and more than 90,000 colleagues, Marsh McLennan helps build the confidence to thrive through the power of perspective. For information, visit marshmma.com, or follow on LinkedIn and X.

About Lost&Found

Lost&Found is a South Dakota-based, Bush prize-winning nonprofit organization that aims to do more to eliminate suicide among young adults and employees in the United States. Lost&Found is committed to connecting organization leaders to share best practices and common challenges while building a culture of mental health investment among workplaces. To learn more about Lost&Found’s Workplace Resilience Index, contact Erik Muckey at emuckey@resilienttoday.org.

Lost&Found supporters Ken and Pat Duncan know mental health education saves lives

Posted on June 30, 2025 by - Blog, Fundraising

Make an impact! Support Lost&Found with a recurring donation today.

 

Ken and Pat Duncan lost their 27-year-old daughter, Abbey, to suicide in 2010. She was an avid environmentalist; a mentor to other young women studying Buddhism; and a hydrologist for the City of New York doing brownfield remediation, finding success and respect in a male-dominated industry of developers.

“How do you go from being that impactful to, for lack of a better word, losing your way in life? And it happened very, very quickly,” Ken said. “As an outsider looking in … we’ll never really know.”

This personal experience of loss changed his perspective on mental health.

“It opens up a whole new world, a whole new awareness,” he said. “Things that were foreign to you are no longer foreign to you.”

At the time of his daughter’s death, Ken had spent nearly 30 years working in financial services. The loss of their daughter made him realize just how many people, including some portion of those he had contact with as a manager and executive through those years, struggle with their mental health.

Ken, who, with Pat, lives in Luck, Wisconsin, sees that people are dealing with a lot more today than they were in the time when he and previous generations were growing up.

“Of course, my parents and grandparents grew up through some very traumatic times as well, but they had a completely different way of approaching their lives,” he said. “It was much more family-based, much more community-based. People weren’t as dispersed as we all are today. You really were part of the community, part of a village. In today’s world, you’ve got all these things pulling people apart as opposed to bringing people together.”

His daughter’s death made him see this clearly.

“When it is personal, when it is close, then you start to really understand how you could have applied (this knowledge) differently historically—but more importantly, how do you try to apply it going forward?” Ken said.

One avenue for applying his new perspective was serving on the board of People Incorporated, an organization that started serving the homeless more than 55 years ago and now provides mental health services to about 14,000 people in the Twin Cities.  “I learned a lot by being a part of that organization—their approach to treating the whole person, not just the physical, but the mental and physical aspects of our health,” he said.

Pat found healing through several mediums, including art. She now leads a Wellness Through Art workshop several times each summer. “I think everybody who has the personal impact of living through (a suicide loss) in some way is also contributing back in different ways,” he said.

Some of the Duncans’ contribution also goes to supporting Lost&Found. Pat and Ken believe in Lost&Found’s mission; Ken sees that it is sharing information and skills that he wishes he would have had earlier in his own life.

“The whole idea about Lost&Found is to broaden the base of knowledge and understanding (of mental health issues), and at the same time, build community,” Ken said. “It’s a way to have a set of resources available to people at a much younger age to think about how to cope with whatever challenges they are facing in life.”

For those who want to see change on issues they care about, supporting nonprofits like Lost&Found is vitally important, according to Ken.

“Building out organizations like Lost&Found is critical to the well-being of our society and our communities,” he said. “They are not properly funded on the public level. And so these organizations need a tremendous amount of private support from those of us who have the capability to do it. You know, it doesn’t have to be a lot of money—it just has to be consistent. Sustainable. A challenge for organizations like Lost&Found is finding sustainable funding sources so they can continue to have an impact in the communities they are serving.”

The goal—both in terms of fundraising and programming—is to keep moving forward.

“It’s small steps, but you just need a lot of them. You need a lot of small steps to make an impact. That’s what Lost&Found is building, one campus at a time and one person at a time,” Duncan said. “Strengthening the overall health of one person strengthens the overall health of the community.”

 

 

There is no single solution to suicide, but through collaborative, strategic actions, we can reduce suicide risk and save lives.1 Together, we do more.

 

Lost&Found is the leading youth and young adult suicide prevention and postvention nonprofit of the Northern Plains, directly serving 47 communities and more than 15,000 people each year.

Our proven track record in the fight against suicide faces new challenges as federal and state funding for prevention efforts is under attack.

Our next generation, and their families, depend on our work and the hope it brings. Suicide prevention doesn’t wait for the next federal or state grant cycle. Lives depend on this work.

Now, more than ever, we need your help. Will you join us today and support our next generation?

 

Your donation supports this work:

STUDENT PROGRAMS:
We deliver resilience education programs and train mental health peer mentors for youth and young adults.

RESEARCH & EVALUATION SERVICES:
We assess campus and workplace suicide prevention capacity and develop action plans.

EDUCATION & POLICY:
We provide education, training, and policy guidance to strengthen systems and raise community awareness of mental health needs.

SURVIVORS JOINING FOR HOPE:
We deliver support for suicide loss survivors through financial assistance and connections to resources.

 

Make your mark on mental health! Support Lost&Found with a recurring donation today.

Donate now

WORDS OF SUPPORT
FOR LOST&FOUND

“I think (Lost&Found’s Peer2Peer Mentorship) program is super beneficial because it gives you a different perspective and opens your mind in terms of how humans need each other when we are struggling, and that it’s okay; it is okay to feel you need help and it is okay to ask for it and feel supported.”
—Student at Bethany Lutheran College

“Lost&Found’s Campus Postvention services have been an invaluable resource for a campus that prioritizes community and culture like South Dakota Mines. Lost&Found provided the perfect blend of pre-existing structure and space for our staff team to begin the process of creating a custom Postvention Guide for our campus. The end result is a comprehensive, compassionate, and sensitive checklist that campus officials can use in the event that our campus community ever loses a student or employee.”
—Joseph Dlugos, Dean of Students, South Dakota Mines

“If I could tell the world or everybody about Lost&Found—just the resources, the people … I would strongly recommend them. It felt really good to know that there was somebody there that understood what we were going through and (could) point us in the right direction.”
—Charity, who was helped by Survivors Joining for Hope after her brother died by suicide in 2022

 

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1    https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/pdf/preventionresource.pdf, page 12. Lost&Found’s suicide prevention and postvention programs align to CDC protocols and State of South Dakota Suicide Prevention priorities.