Bob Collins
There are still too many people who believe the myth that showing you this picture and talking about what’s happening will lead more people to want to jump from a bridge. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Suicide
Suicide attempts don’t generate news stories but this time people in the area took cellphone video of the rescue attempt, so it was only natural that the focus on the story is the heroic work of officers who told the woman that people really do love her. Read more →
Some Facebook users reached a new low today — even for Facebook users — when someone thought it was a good idea to post the image of a man in St. Paul who took his own life.
The St. Paul Police Department — and cops see the worst in us every day — was shocked at the callousness toward a man who had lived with mental health issues.
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The latest victim is Austin Reeves, 26, of Hingham, Mass., who told his parents he just needed to be left alone in his room, where he was fretting over a breakup a week ago Saturday. His dog was with him. So was his gun. Read more →
Little has so defined the dysfunction of a state government with a budget surplus and its citizens indifference toward people with a mental health crisis, than Minnesota’s refusal to fund a suicide hotline that’s been operating for nearly 50 years. But the Minnesota Legislature didn’t come up with any money, neither did any area foundations, and the stateline hotline will shut down on Friday. A national hotline will continue to be available, and so will some county-operated hotlines. Read more →
School officials in Minnesota and around the country have warned parents to talk to their kids about the Netflix series, ’13 Reasons Why.’ A Catholic school in Canada has warned its students not to talk about the series at all.
In Michigan, some students have a better idea.
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Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” is a popular series that is getting some credit for at least bringing up the issue of teen suicide, which is a sad testament to how unable or how unwilling parents are to talk about the second-leading killer of young adults.
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Stillwater Area Schools’ Oak-Land Junior High School posted suicide awareness phone numbers and a few pieces of advice on how to talk about the problem. That’s almost always a sign that a student has died by suicide. Read more →
It’s hard to imagine a more difficult and stressful job than being a security monitor on the University of Minnesota campus, charged with keeping people from jumping off the Washington Avenue bridge. Read more →
When it comes to mental health, we’ve all become expert at looking the other way. Read more →
Contrary to what you may have heard, this is not the time of year when people are more likely to take their own lives.
The notion that it is — allegedly due to the holidays and the darkness of winter — is a myth, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania reports today. But that fact hasn’t stopped it from being repeated. Read more →
At far too young of an age, students in Renville are learning a painful lesson about life: Sometimes, depression leads people to take their own life. Read more →
Acting on the advice of experts, schools have pretty well lowered the cone of silence on the issue of suicides by students. They’re worried that it will lead to a copycat syndrome.
So it’s shocking to learn, as we did via NPR today, that middle school suicides have reached an all-time high, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Read more →
Today’s must-read item comes from Mara Gottfried at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, who tells the story of Ali Bility, a 17-year-old who was in the starting lineup last night when Como Park’s football squad took the field.
Suffering from depression, Bility had attempted suicide last winter. Read more →
Katie Schoener is going to be remembered and buried today in Scranton, Pa., and her family isn’t shy about the circumstances. Read more →