Wednesday marks the 11th annual World Suicide Prevention Day.
Recognized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, the day is set aside to raise awareness of suicide, and how it can be prevented. According to the IASP, over 800,000 people die from suicide each year; that’s roughly one death every 40 seconds.
Dr. Melinda Moore is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor at Eastern Kentucky University. Moore says everyone should be aware of the warning signs of suicide.
“There are warning signs that you should take very, very seriously if someone is showing them,” says Moore. “For instance, if somebody is talking about killing themselves or thinking or acting as if they are wanting to look for means to kill themselves, they’re talking about buying a gun or stockpiling pills, that kind of thing. You definitely want to consider and treat it as an emergency.”
Moore says it is good thing that the subject of suicide is less taboo and that the general public is more aware. She says more effort needs to be put into better preparing those who treat suicidal patients. “Graduate training programs are not training clinicians how to treat suicidal people. And so I think while we’ve got some of these really wonderful interventions and technology, it’s just a matter of disseminating, getting them into the graduate training programs, getting clinicians trained to treat suicidal people competently,” she says.
Dr. Melinda Moore conducts suicide bereavement research at EKU. She recently completed a post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Kentucky where she continues to collaborate on a Department of Defense-funded Military Suicide Bereavement Study.
Moore also serves as chair of the nonprofit Kentucky Suicide Prevention Group.
