TSF Blog
Amanda Lehto
I have had personal experience with mental health issues both with myself and my children. My expertise is in sharing my lived experience with individuals who need or want a positive view on the possibility of recovery with mental health and substance abuse. I too have a passion for working on my mental health issues and learning everyday from set backs I have had. It makes my recovery a priceless endeavor.
Press Release: Use of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson’s 911 Call
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Use of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson’s 911 Call - Safety and Hope are the Keys to Prevent Additional Deaths by Suicide
My experience with Mental Health First Aid Training
As the platform and service, I choose to promote as Miss Capital City this year is Saving Lives: Preventing Suicide in our Youth and Young Adults. I have always been interested in suicide and mental health, but as a college student, wanted to learn more about what I can do to help others.
Hannah Menzner
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.
Nampa suicide prevention panel pushes for open discourse
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.
Suicide: Phase 2 - This Week from Senator Carl Crabtree
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.
Suicide in Idaho and District 7 - This Week from Senator Carl Crabtree
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.
Idaho Olympian’s struggle with depression is foundation of hope for others
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.