Suicide prevention when social distancing
If you’ve attended any of our suicide prevention trainings, you may recall that isolation is one of the possible warning signs that someone may be considering suicide. We encourage you to be “noticers” (not in Websters Dictionary – yet!) and reach out when you observe someone withdrawing or not acting like themselves.
Early warning signs of teen substance use
As a parent of a teenager, it may be challenging to tell if your child is demonstrating typical adolescent behaviors or mood shifts, or if there are other influences to their behaviors such as alcohol and/or other drugs.
What we need to know about becoming an ally to LGBTQ+ youth
I found some gold this month and I want to share it. Throughout the past year, a slew of fantastic behavioral health webinars emerged in Virginia—so many, in fact, it was tough to engage in all of the ones I hoped.
The importance of talking about suicide with your child
Suicide is a difficult topic to talk about, we know. But with suicide being the second leading cause of death among youth ages 15-24, the need to be open and honest is even greater.
Help for COVID-19 caregivers
We all have been impacted by COVID-19 one way or another. We’ve seen the creativity of our educators. We’ve seen the shifts in the way we do our jobs. We’ve seen new ways to do business. We’ve seen the resilience of our communities.
As fate would have it
As fate would have it, our new Lock and Talk Virginia website is launching at the tail end of Mental Health Awareness Month during this extraordinary health crisis. Many months ago, when we started developing a more robust site, we had no idea electronic communication would become not just a helpful tool, but vital to suicide prevention work.