September 11, 2019 by Sean McMahon, LHC Outreach Coordinator

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and specifically this week is National Suicide Prevention Week. A friend of mine recently died by suicide, and since then I’ve been diving into national statistic and prevention strategies.

A month ago, I was at my desk, stumped about what to share on the Lister Hill Center’s Facebook page. This is always an involved process. I’d like to share the new Healthcare Triage video each week, but that would be redundant. I’d like to make another post about Medicaid policy changes, but I’d already made a few that month. Still deciding, I logged on and the first this I saw was a post from a former pastor of mine, someone my family has kept in touch with for nearly two decades.

Normally, when I log into Facebook to interact as the Lister Hill Center, I quickly navigate away from the home page so that I don’t bring my personal life to my work desk. However, when you see the words “my oldest son has passed away,” your heart jumps a little bit and you have to take a moment to investigate. Almost immediately I received a text from my sister to tell me the news. She was with the family. She was with them shortly after they were told that their son had taken his own life.

After a week of going through the motions, I went to be with my family and friends. We had an informal memorial; a funeral wasn’t possible just yet. After another week of going through the motions, I went back for the formal funeral service.