I am Miss Capital City! As part of my year of service, I am promoting my platform: Saving Lives: Preventing Suicide in our Youth and Young Adults. I have always been interested in suicide and mental health, but wanted to learn more about how to help so I dug right in.

Affected personally by suicides by some close to her, Shannon Decker, executive director of a mental health nonprofit called the Speedy Foundation, said she wishes she’d learned that sooner.

“I know for a fact that if I had been given direct instruction as a teenager, the same way I was given direct instruction in health class about every health issue, that I would have been equipped to ask these questions and potentially have saved some lives,” said Decker, whose cousin Olympic silver medalist Jeret “Speedy” Peterson died of suicide in 2011 and after whom the Speedy Foundation is named.

I promise this is the last time (for a while) I will talk about suicide prevention! But, this is becoming a bigger deal to our district and our state every day. Just a couple of weeks ago, two young people in Moscow took their lives.
This week, I met with administrators of health and welfare, representatives of the Governor’s Suicide Council and representatives of two private foundations working on suicide prevention in Idaho.

2/4/18 Newsletter

Idaho is the 4th highest state in the union for suicides per capita. Our district is the highest in the state. What’s wrong?
What should we do? More of the same? Change tactics?
I don’t know the answers to all those questions, but I am trying to run down some ideas. First, we have thrown some money at it from the state. About $1 million for the last year and a half. No measurable results. I asked for a visit with the department head, and the person in charge of the suicide prevention program. They were very accommodating, but I am very impatient, so I wasn’t satisfied!
I have found that they have four full time employees but contract out all their work. That doesn’t make sense to me, needing four people to hire others to do the work?  I am sure there is more to the story; I’ll be finding out.
I know some of you don’t think government should be in this business but if they are, they must be effective. We simply can’t allow our neighbors to commit suicide, while we say solving it will “take a lot of time.”  The time is now!  More to come.

On the snow, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson seemed to have it all. Idaho's Olympic freestyle aerial skier competed in three Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in Vancouver in 2010. He inspired a generation of Olympic hopefuls with his death-defying trick, aptly named "The Hurricane." But off the snow, Speedy's family says he struggled like anyone else and eventually succumbed to his lifelong battle with depression and anxiety in 2011.

Boise - On Tuesday, Sept. 12, state leaders marked National Suicide Prevention Week with a proclamation signing at the Idaho Statehouse. Statistics show suicide is the eighth leading cause of death overall in the Gem State. Organizers say the ceremony was about celebrating how far the state has come in supporting suicide prevention, and bringing a greater awareness to the cause. "This is all part of the framework of doing the right thing in Idaho," said Lt. Gov. Brad Little. "...of investing in the health and stability of our communities."

A free public screening of James Redford’s documentary, “RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope,” a partnership between Optum Idaho, the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund, The Speedy Foundation and the Idaho Federation of Families, is being screened at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Shoshone-Bannock Hotel and Events Center, 777 Bannock Trail in Fort Hall. There also will be a panel discussion, featuring local community health experts.

In partnership with the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund, The Speedy Foundation and the Idaho Federation of Families presented the movie RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope at a professional education conference and community education event at Boise State University’s Special Events Center May 13.

By Zach Kyle, Idaho Statesman

However, the show does give parents a window to broach a difficult subject with their teens, she said. That could be a silver lining in Idaho, which had the ninth-highest suicide rate in the nation in 2015, 46 percent higher than the national average. “Parents need to step up to the plate,” Decker said. “Sometimes, kids are ready to talk, and parents are the ones who are hesitant. Prepare yourself for an open and honest conversation, and be ready to hear whatever your child shares with you."

Family gatherings, while wonderful, can be a difficult time to get through if you’ve recently entered addiction recovery; they come with so many responsibilities, worries, and stresses, and there’s often so little time to do anything else that many of us neglect our own health and well-being. This can have detrimental impacts on your sobriety, so it’s important to reach out for help when you need it.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways to beat stress and maintain your sober status no matter what has brought your family together; with a little planning and preparation, you can ensure your time with your loved ones is fun-filled and substance-free. Here are a few of the best tips for doing just that.

Film examines long-term effects of childhood trauma and science behind cutting-edge therapies designed to protect children from harm caused by toxic stress

By David Wells, Fox13 News

Author Fatima Doman and CONNECT Summit County's Shauna Wiest visited the FOX 13 Studio Tuesday morning to talk about unlocking inner strengths and empowering students in Park City School District's "Resilience Week."

Watch Interview Here

Author Fatima Doman and Park City School District  Intervention Counselor Samantha Walsh talk about Resilience Week coming to Park City next week.

Listen Here

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) how do you teach your children resilience and grit? The park city school district plans to focus on that next week in all of their classrooms.

Intervention counselor Samantha Walsh and Fatima Doman the founder, CEO and author of authentic strengths joined Emily Clark on Good Morning Utah to talk about what is takes to teach your children these values.

In collaboration with the Park City School District, The Speedy Foundation, and many other community partners, CONNECT is proud to present Resilience Week in Park City. The week will include the screening of three powerful, award winning films to create crucial dialogue within our community. All of the events are free and the entire family is welcome.

Film screenings aim to deliver a powerful message to community

By Bubba Brown, Park Record

When Connect Summit County and the Speedy Foundation, organizations dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues, were thinking of organizing a community film screening, they were excited to discover the Park City School District was planning to show two similar films the same week.

Instead of hosting separate events, the three groups formed a partnership, along with the Park City Library, to form Resilience Week, an upcoming series of free film screenings aimed at uniting the community and showing adolescents the strength they have within themselves to take on whatever life throws at them.

The organizers of Resilience Week are hoping it delivers a valuable message to the community's youth and their parents about what it means to be resilient.

"Resilience is built through experiencing and adapting to adverse events over time," she said. "It doesn't mean that you don't feel stress or the emotional impact of events, but you're able to bounce back after getting knocked down without becoming depressed, anxious or even worse — suicidal."

You’re constantly bombarded with media telling you how you can get fit, eat better, and improve your physical health — but what about your mental health? Mental health is just as ( if not more) important than physical health, but it tends to fall by the wayside when dreaming up self-improvement to-do lists. Make mental health a priority in 2017 by incorporating these 10 habits into your plans for the new year.

By: Amy Donaldson, Deseret News

Cook said Speedy not only came to her house to give her daily updates on all of his experiences as a competitor, but he gained worldwide attention when he wrote “Hi, Emily” on his gloves and flashed them at the camera.

“He came to my house and told me all the tiny details,” she said, adding that she wears his belt “on the hill every day” as a tribute to him, just as he wrote on his gloves as a tribute to her. “We celebrated the Olympics in a different way.”

How to curb Utah’s teen-suicide rate? Hatch-convened roundtable says kids needs access to mental-health services

By Alex Stuckey | The Salt Lake Tribune

Republican state Sen. Daniel Thatcher was 11 years old when he lost his first classmate to suicide. He was 16 when he lost his close friend.

That's why, he says, it's so important to drop the stigma and talk about suicide.

"If you talk to someone, they live," Thatcher, from West Valley City, said. "If you connect them to support, they live."

Hatch convenes suicide-prevention conference

By Lois M. Collins & Lauren Fields | Deseret News

“We’ve made more progress in the last five years than in the 20 years before,” Dr. Doug Gray, a psychiatrist, professor and suicidologist at the University of Utah, told the audience at the roundtable, held at East High in Salt Lake City.

MASSACHUSETTS: Flying Away from Stigma: Logan Exhibit Displays Stories of Mental Illness

The Boston Globe
A new exhibit at Boston's Logan Airport aims to reduce the negative bias associated with mental illness by sharing the images and stories of those who have been intimately affected by it. A collaboration between the psychiatric institution McLean Hospital and several mental health organizations, "Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life" displays photographs and interviews with people who have experienced a variety of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide. Participants, who represent a range of sociodemographic backgrounds, seek to convey the challenges of living with mental illness, but also the opportunities for healing and resilience. Sean Shinnock, who shares his story of living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, said, "I hope that somebody who may be hurting gets a little solace, that they know they're not alone."