National Suicide Prevention month is just around the corner. Here in Hawaii recent reports point to a troubling trend of higher rates of suicide and attempted suicide among our youth. You may know someone who has lost a loved one due to mental illness. How can we help others cope with feelings of despair?
At the table today...
Dr Deborah Goebert is with the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She is the Director of Hawaii’s Caring Communities Initiative for Youth Suicide Prevention.
Blane Garcia is a School Health Educator with the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center who seeings first hand what is happening out in our community.
Mike Durant is president of NAMI - the National Alliance on Mental Illness and past chair of the Hawaii State Council on Mental Health. He got involved watching his son struggle with mental illness.
And joining us by phone:
Dr. Michael Rimm is a Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatrist who has been in practice for 30 years. Prior to working in Maui Dr. Rimm was the Clinical Director of the only public Child Adolescent Mental Health Agency in South Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand had the highest rate of youth suicide in the developed world at the time.
