This is important: @cdcgov came out with a report in 2018 that showed that 54% of Americans who died by suicide between 1999-2016 did not have a known mental health history. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 1/

This points to the complexity of #suicide: there’s certainly an intersection with mental health and psychiatric diagnoses, but there are many other issues at play. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 2/

Look at that image above. Breakups are a huge contributing factor to #suicide. Healthcare issues, legal issues, houselessness, job loss (these latter two are especially relevant in these covidious times). #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 3/

These are just regular ol' life issues. Like I said earlier, I think #suicide has a much, much bigger impact than we know. This is why. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 4/

We’ve got to think differently about #suicide. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 5/

Suicidology/ #suicide prevention has a PR problem. We’re in conflict with ourselves, which makes it very difficult to land on a shared goal, & it makes it difficult to get folks onboard who haven’t already been affected by suicide. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 6/

We’ll tell you that #suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. overall, and that it’s the second leading cause of death in the 15-24 age range. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 7/

A statement like this might lead the casual observer to believe, then, that suicide is important and merits our attention. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 8/

Our next move will be to push you away by telling you that #suicide is a rare event. We’ll tell you it’s abnormal. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 9/

We’ll tell you #suicide is linked to depression and mental illness, and we’ll show you photos like this. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 10/

These photos are probably why so many people say they had no idea someone they knew was suicidal. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 11/

This is what we think of when we think of #suicide—not the beautiful faces that make up @lttphoto, & not the survivors we’ve never met, or the ones who aren't ready to share and may never be. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 12/

We’ll tell you that #suicide is complex, & we’ll follow that up with talk of assessments/screenings & risk factors & evidence-based practices that are normed on white people, & that totally ignore the realities of the world we’re living in. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 13/

If #suicide is complex, there must be many ways of knowing about it. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 14/

Our body of knowledge around #suicide is not as established as we would have people believe, & the research is not as rigorous as it should be. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 15/

Nor has it historically been influenced by or inclusive of the very people directly affected by #suicide. Of course we want answers to rely on, but we don’t have them yet. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 16/

My challenge to you today is that you broaden your views on #suicide. The path we’re on now is only one way of knowing. How does the view change when we start asking questions and making links? #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 17/

How does the view change when we start asking about how ableism, colonization, white supremacy, structural oppression, forced treatment, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia? How do those impact #suicide? #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 18/

How does the view change when we acknowledge that this is political, and a long history of abuses have been perpetrated against suicidal people and those labeled mentally ill? #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 19/

How does the view change when we start linking it to Nazi experiments and forced sterilization? When we start talking about mental illness and suicide in the carceral system? #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 20/

How does it change when we start talking about the ethics of pulling people from their environments, handcuffing them, taking them to a hospital against their will? And the possibility that they may die if they come into contact with police? #suicideprevention #NSPW20 21/

#Suicide doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We’ve got to stop locating suicidality as a disorder within an individual and look outward, too. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 22/

We have to consider suicidal people in the context of their environments (the current climate, both politically and with this pandemic, is a great example). #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 23/

We have to take their unique histories, cultures, belief systems, race, ethnicity, immigration status, disability—every single thing about them—into account when we’re deciding how best to offer support. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 24/

If we're not doing that, we're not doing our jobs, and we'll never see the #suicide rate go down in any meaningful way. #suicideprevention #NSPW20 #bethere 25/