LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Sunday afternoon, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention met at War Memorial Park for their annual "Out of the Darkness Walk," which raises money for their research program and helps with suicide awareness. It also educates the community on the signs of mental illness.
"A lot of people that are here have lost loved ones, some have lost several loved ones and so there's a vested interest, the number of survivors that I meet that say, if we could help another family never experienced this, again, we would do whatever it takes," Jacqueline Sharp, Area Director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention said.
She said their mission is to save lives and to bring hope to those affected by suicide.
"We go into events like this one today, where we raise awareness, this is a leading cause of death here in our state and so we want to raise awareness, we want to educate people, we want to help support loss survivors, because individuals that lose loved ones to suicide are actually at greater risk of themselves," she added.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2022. To combat that rising number Sharp said it can help to know some of the signs to look out for.
"Some warning signs can be [how] often people use talk, mood or behavior so they're talking about suicide. They're saying things like, I'm overwhelmed, or I feel like a burden, that can be a warning sign. Or their mood shifts, they aren't participating in the things that they normally participate in, or they become very, very happy. That's also been a mood that we've detected and then behavior can be where they do spending, or they go and spend their money recklessly or they start isolating from people," Sharp described,
Sharp also explained how walking with someone that's going through a dark time can make a world of a difference and it shows that you see them, acknowledge them, and want to help.
"We want people to learn suicide prevention strategies so that if you find yourself or someone else in crisis, you can help prevent a loss and so it's really important that we talk about it, that we bring this conversation out of the darkness and into the open and into the light," She said.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's goal is to raise $110,000 and they're currently at about $38,000.
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