Suicide Awareness Walk set for Sept. 10

People have been invited to an event to share their experiences and stories, learn about and walk to increase awareness of the need of suicide prevention.

People can also register by Friday for a book discussion series Hill County Suicide Awareness Coalition is sponsoring with the Haver-Hill County Library.

The Sixth Annual Hill County Suicide Awareness Walk is set for Thursday, Sept. 10, starting at 6:45 p.m. at Cowan Hall on Montana State University-Northern’s campus.

“The walk provides a venue for people who have been affected by suicide to have an opportunity to speak about their experiences as well as to memorialize friends, family and loved ones who they have lost to suicide,”  Suicide Awareness Coalition Chair Amber Spring said. “It also gives our community to bring discussions regarding depression, suicide and mental health out of the dark and into the light as we talk about the effects of mental health, depression and suicide on our community.”

The theme this year is “Connect To Protect.”

“It is the 2020 theme from the Defense Suicide Prevention Office,” Spring said. “We felt like this was a good theme for this year and that social distancing has, in some ways, caused people to feel a little bit more disconnected from their social support, so we’re hoping that ‘connect to protect’ can be a reminder that even if you are not able to spend time with people face-to-face that we can connect in other ways.”

She said this year, due to COVID-19, the event will not include the pre-activities that it normally does, which included participants getting suicide awareness honor beads, making memorials and signs.

Instead, she said, the Coalition is asking participants to come with the honor beads if they have them, with their signs and memorials made.

Masks are also required, but masks will be provided with the coalition’s logo on it, she added.

She said that though the event is going to be outside people must be social distanced.

At 7 p.m. is the event’s keynote speaker, Montana State University Billings Student Health Services Director and Ask in Earnst Founder Darla Tyler-McSherry.

After Tyler-McSherry speaks, Spring said, community members will have an opportunity to speak and share their experiences or memorials of loved ones, then will walk around campus.

“I think COVID-19 has excerbated mental health symptoms we were already seeing, especially with depression and anxiety, so this time it’s particularly important to be able to check in with people we have concerns with,” Spring said.

The Hill County Suicide Awareness Coalition and the Havre-Hill County Library are partnering up to offer a virtual discussion on the book “Rising Strong” by Brené Brown. 

Participants are asked to purchase their own copy of the book or audio book and start reading or listening. They should register by Friday.

The virtual discussions are Saturday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 26 from 3-4 p.m. 

People can register with Jasmine Carbajal by calling 406-400-2333 or emailing her at [email protected].

For more information about suicide prevention information and resources, people can visit https://dphhs.mt.gov/suicideprevention/suicideresources .