World Suicide Prevention Day 2021
September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day, and to mark this date, we wanted to share our “Never Alone” story, written by our founders, Darick and Emily Ritter, in partnership with UC Merced Assistant Professor of Public Health and Graduate Group Chair of Public Health, Sidra Goldman-Mellor.
“Never Alone” was created to be a guide to assisting students at UC Merced in identifying the tell tale signs of potential suicide victims. According to the CDC, in a study conducted in 2019, more than 47,500 people in the U.S. died by suicide in that same year (that’s one death every eleven minutes).
While the causes for committing suicide are varied and personal, it is important to understand that suicide itself is preventable, and that with proper treatment and care, the underlining reasons for the attempt to commit suicide, can be addressed and avoided. “Never Alone” addresses these facts, and aims to help prevent these tragedies.
While today marks World Suicide Prevention Day, the entirety of September is National Suicide Prevention Month. We encourage you to share this link with anyone you feel may benefit from it, and help them understand that they are not alone, and that help is readily available for them.
