Read on Twitter
I got busy and never told y'all the story about how I discovered that I may have made a big change that I care about.
So, this saga started back on 7/14/20 when I learned about the 2020 Suicide Prevention Summit.
So, this saga started back on 7/14/20 when I learned about the 2020 Suicide Prevention Summit.
I looked at the lineup—all white folks and a single Black woman who was listed last. I looked at the other info, and despite partnering with AAS on this project, the site developer used statistics from AFSP.
This screenshot from the Wayback Machine shows the site was crawled nearly a month later. If I recall correctly, AFSP was initially credited for the stats. In that month, I guess someone said something to the developer, so he changed the citation, but not the statistics.
AAS doesn't report that $69 billion financial burden stat. AFSP does. This was the first time I ever saw it, and I was PISSED.
This field probably struggles so much because, despite needing to humanize suicide so folks will Get It, we remove the humanity from it altogether with things like statistics. $69 billion in financial loss due to suicide death! A deeply important fact to share! Capitalism, woo!
One of the leading theories in suicidology is Joiner's Interpersonal Theory, which is made up of three parts: thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability/acquired capacity. I think it's too simplistic, but a lot of people like it.
Here's the AFSP website on 5/31 and 7/21. You'll notice that this $69 billion figure is the fourth statistic listed on this page. You can't see it in these screenshots, but there is another handful of statistics below these highlighted boxes.
Thwarted belongingness is important here. Suicidal people go to the AFSP website looking for information and/or help. They then see themselves dehumanized and reduced to a capitalist pawn for generating dollars. Likely not gonna foster a sense of belonging.
The burdensomeness piece is important. Loss survivors visit the AFSP website for information and support. They then see the person they lost as a burden to the system.
I imagine very few people saw that and felt great about it. Of course, it's important information to collect, especially for funders. But should it be on their main stats page? Should it be one of the top four highlighted stats?
No.
No.
Should it be on a page specifically for funders and others? Politicians, maybe medical folks? Yep.
So, y'know, I ran my mouth about it. Remember, this is 7/14.
On 10/13, I got an email from someone at my internship with this in it. I lost my everloving mind, because it meant that AFSP made one of these things for every single state—and again, financial burden is front and center.
This time, I decided to be a little more direct. I struggle with when to directly address an org and when not to. I want to do the right thing, but I also want to be liked. It's deeply uncomfortable to be in this position.
AFSP tweeted back and told me I'd hear from someone soon.
In the meantime, that evening, I was telling @swearjarslp the story and I went to pull up the website to show her the prominent placement of the stat.
But it was gone!
But it was gone!
!!!
I was like, "Wait. DID THIS ACTUALLY HAPPEN? THEY TOOK IT DOWN?"
So I pulled up the Wayback Machine. The site was crawled on 5/31, 7/21, 8/1, 8/7, and 10/13. There on 7/21, gone on 8/1! Holy shit!
So it got removed within two weeks of my complaint. Coincidence, or Twitter activism gone right?
I got an email from an AFSP rep the next day indicating that the statistic would also be removed from state fact sheets (YIS!):
I had some thoughts to share, though. Free consultation, I guess, but I totally deserve cash dollars. Time = money, and all this yelling was a financial burden to me!
I wanted to confirm that the stat would be removed from the state fact sheets, so I asked (above), and I received that confirmation (again, YISSSS). Felt like a win, even though I did all that free educatin'.
ONE FUCKIN' WEEK LATER:
The local AFSP chapter did a Talk Saves Lives training for the Suicide Prevention Task Force and my whole head exploded. 
Infuriating on a number of levels—the stat, the obsession with the biomedical model, the fact that AFSP has most of the money and power in the field and continues to spread suicide = mental illness narratives.
But that's where we're at with things. Interested to see shiny 2021 fact sheets, for sure.
