I apologize if this was posted before but I looked and didn't see it. Suicide prevention month just ended but I started to think about preventing suicide after I read this. Basically, suicide kills more Americans than car crashes. Personally, I feel that not enough is being done to prevent suicide and get rid of the belief that asking for help is weak. Does anyone else agree? If not, why? What steps do you guys think should be taken to help prevent suicide?
We need more funding for both mental health care and mental health research. There also needs to be a systematic shift in society's stigma on mental illness.
I agree with Mogget that mental health care seems to be consistently neglected, even here in Canada I think our health care system should be doing more about it. I think there is also a problem within the medical community itself as drugs (specifically SSRIs) I believe are being overused to treat such conditions. For some cases these drugs may benefit the user if there is some sort of chemical imbalance, but for others these drugs merely mask the problem, not getting at the root cause of why someone is actually depressed.
I have actually lost a friend to suicide awhile back :'( I will be doing a suicide prevention walk with my friends soon
