They Are From The Government

And the question is: Can they help? SAMSHA (don't make me type out its name) is a federal agency and just updated its website on the national suicide prevention strategy. The basic goal of cutting suicides to 15,000 a year by 2010 has been in place since 1999. It isn't going so well. Each year about 31,000 Americans kill themselves at a rate that's essentially unchanged since the 1950s. It's one of those things that I don't think the government can do much to address beyond making basic information available and so on. But SAMSHA thinks otherwise:

“Over the past five years, we have worked to align SAMHSA’s resources to create systemic change,” Curie said. “We have invested agency resources in the program priority areas and we have built a record of achievement, including the Access to Recovery, Strategic Prevention Framework, Mental Health System Transformation, and Co-occurring State Incentive Grants programs, among others. The Matrix serves as our guidepost for budget formulation, program development and resource allocation at SAMHSA. It focuses staff and the field on nurturing a few redwoods rather than letting a thousand flowers bloom.”

I don't know about you, but when I see the government mixing terms like "systemic change," Matrix (capitalized no less), redwoods and flowers, it makes me want to move to Mexico. Or call Keneau Reeves. Keep in mind these are the bright bulbs who are going to halve the suicide rate in this country. We are doomed.