Local group receives money for suicide prevention

A member of the Mitchell Suicide Prevention Task Force said a grant will provide some assistance for at-risk youth in Davison County.

The $500,000 grant will be split between five cities and agencies: the local committee, plus Gregory, Sisseton, University of South Dakota/Vermillion and the Rapid City Front Porch Coalition. It’s unknown how much each group will get.

Anne Anderson, a member of the local task force, said the recent award of the Garrett Lee Smith Grant for Youth Suicide Prevention is designed to reduce the Mitchell community’s rate of suicide in youth between ages 14 and 24.

The grant derives from federal legislation written by former Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., whose son, Garrett, committed suicide in 2003.

“It’s going to make a huge difference, because it’s going to create awareness,” Anderson said. “It’s going to create a time and place to get some training.”

The task force hopes to distribute information and establish training for school faculty and students as well as other community members to help prevent suicides.

According to numbers from the South Dakota Department of Health, the number of suicides in the state increased from 101 in 2007 to 123 in 2008 and 128 in 2009.

In Davison County, the number fluctuated from three in 2006 to less than three in 2007 (the department doesn’t release numbers less than three), while four were reported in 2008.

The 16-member group, which Anderson said anyone can join, has planned Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, or ASIST, to occur in the summer and fall. The free, two-day workshop is designed for members of all caregiving groups. Interested parties can pre-register by e-mailing k.jorgensen@dakotacounseling.net.

Training will take place Monday and Tuesday at the Mitchell Technical Institute’s Technology Center.

Anderson said kits will be distributed to individuals, including bartenders. She said people often share problems with bartenders as a last resort.

“People that open up and talk to bartenders are sometimes very desperate people,” Anderson said. “It’s going to give (bartenders) a card … in case they need to make a phone call to a trained professional that is much more knowledgeable in the area of depression.”

Tags: mitchell suicide prevention task force, university of south dakota at vermillion, rapid city front porch coalition, anne anderson, garrett lee smith grant for youth suicide prevention, davison county, applied suicide intervention skills training, news, gregory, sisseton, fccnetwork