SUICIDE: Walk for awareness

Two-hundred and eighty-four Idahoans completed suicide in 2011. It’s a statistic, yes, but it is so much more. Each of those 284 individuals had a family, a life, a story and something that led them to such despair that they ended their own life.

Suicide is a preventable death. Prevention of suicide is the primary goal of the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN). Prevention of suicide involves caring — caring enough to recognize and react to the warning signs of suicide, caring enough to get involved and to talk about suicide and what we as a community can do to prevent suicide, and caring enough to join us for our 6th annual Memorial walk on Oct. 19. Check in is at 9 a.m. at O’Shay’s Restaurant parking lot. Walk 3.8 miles with us at 10 a.m. There is no stigma in caring.

LORA WHALEN

Director, Panhandle Health District