There is a saying, think globally, act locally.
This is how I believe this can be approached, is to micromanage mental illness within individual cities, not just within States or Counties.
Each city decides to take on mental health issues, and suicide prevention, and based on population, get help centers and telephone lines set up to accomodate the need of the city.
Then, taking into sections, and having consumers themselves, patients, answering telephones for instance.
Living in Washington state there are a handful of hotlines to call, and they generally stem off of one or 2 mainstream entities.
Patients and family members are often told in blanket statements to call the Crisis hotline or NAMI.
I did this. For example: I took all phone numbers given to me to call in a crisis re: mental health.
I found on several phone calls (that I made seriously needing to speak to someone who "got it")I was told to go to a movie, call NAMI, or get my nails done.
I specifically asked if anyone in the building had experiences like mine, being a bipolar mother of a very sick child.
They could not think of anyone for me to speak to, and the person referred me to call a few other phone numbers, and I did, and what I ended up with was a list of NAMI support groups in my area, and that was that.(and support groups meet at diff times, they arent always there when you need it).
If I was so far gone as to seriously saying I wanted to kill myself, they told me to just simply dial 911.

The only way to narrow this down and fine tune suicide prevention (and mean it) is to get into the small sections of communities and take serious action.

When I was young, (in the mid-60's in CA.) there was a program in my neighborhood school area where mothers that were home during the day could place a cardboard sign in their window with a red handprint on it. That meant it was a safe house to go to if a child felt fear walking home.
This is what I am talking about. It's the you's and the me's that put a sticker on our cars, or in our house windows, or buttons on our jackets, that have a symbol that means : You can call me, walk up to me, or knock on my door if you feel suicidal, I will talk and sit with you, if you want support.

This may sound wild and far fetched, but it's a effort such as this, that can keep people alive or give them hope they want to live.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with my oldest daughter last night, and the time spent on the telephone kept her from going to the ER. She got through the night and called her pdoc this morning and talked medication adjustment successfully.

Think global, but act local.

If we all wore white buttons with a red hand print on it, we could be easily identified as a caring person who will listen if another person feels like killing themselves.

Stop. Talk. Live.

I don't know if this is the right crowd to be saying this stuff to -- but I love my old doctors SO much!!!

I just wrote them a letter, and they all wrote back. I told them how well I'm doing and everything, and they were delighted to hear from me. It's been just over three years since I was discharged... and you know how it is with schizophrenia -- one day goes by, and poof, you're right back in the hospital again. But not me!!! They all did such a good job, along with my outpatient supports -- and it all has kept me perminatly out of that shitty place. I love them so much.

With that being said, I literally want to annihilate Children's from the face of the planet cause I just have so many horrid memories from that place. Just TERRIBLE. But the actual people were so nice and so supportive. I love them.

Do any of you love your doctors?

Suicidal ideation has been plaguing my oldest daughter for 3 days. I asked her yesterday if someone had on a button like I described would she talk to the person. It just sounded absurd when I asked her that, and of course she said no.

This makes me think about what has been written about here before and male suicide statistics.

I personally have a 50% database in my personal life. 3 men I knew killed themselves, and in violent ways. (gun; standing in front of an oncoming train; high speed driving while distraught).
The 3 women OD'd on meds and got help from friends to get to ER's and survived the attempts.

It makes me wonder, truly wonder, what keeps some of us here and what drives some of us over the edge to succeed at suicide. Why does it seem that men have a higher rate of success? and what wasn't in place in their life to prevent them from dying? Was it high stakes pressures of society that sent them over the edge? I ask these questions in my mind, knowing 1 man that stood in front of the train at 5pm rushhour, left a note and said it was bad business deals; 2 of the men I knew ..were distraught over wives leaving them.
The women all were under treatment from psychiatrists and on medication.
I don't know if the men were being treated for any mental health issues. They were just all here one day, and the next day violently dead and gone.

It is a depressing thought, that we cannot come up with a better way. The idea of prevention is a good one, but what about the people who never seem to appear that anything is wrong, and kill themselves?

How do you get help to that sub group: the ones that seem to be the most successful at killing themselves? The ones who appear OK then kill themself?

Hi Philip,

I don't understand your position on suicide. You're for it yet against it? You don't want people to commit suicide, yet you think it's fine if they do? Sometimes you think it's a problem, but at other times you don't? It seems kind of contradictory to me. Explain yourself.

And while you're at it, explain why you don't call the police when people get killed.