Starting the Conversation

When Amy* opened an email aimed at raising awareness about suicide prevention in Indiana, she made a point to talk to her 13-year-old daughter about its contents. As a result, it sparked a conversation about suicide between them, and she was able to share more information and resources from Community Behavioral Health with her.

More than a month later, her daughter came to her to tell her that her best friend had been talking about dying by suicide and that she was worried it would really happen. She was nervous, but she wanted Amy to talk to her friend’s mother and let her know. She told Amy she would rather make her friend angry about sharing a secret than for her friend to try to die by suicide.

Amy had the difficult conversation with the other mother. She was shocked at first, but she was very glad that Amy called. She took steps to get her daughter extra support through therapy and at school, and her daughter spoke with her more about the feelings of self-harm that she had not originally planned to discuss with her.

Amy is grateful that Community Health Network is sharing the kinds of tools and resources that can provide hope to young people and their parents in a time of need. In this instance, she knows these kinds of efforts made a difference in a young girl’s life.

“My daughter approached me about this because we had that door-opening talk when I shared the  information with her,” she said. “Ultimately, this email is what opened the door for me to alert the mom of this very depressed teenager. Otherwise, it would have just been a secret shared between teens, and the outcome may not have been so good.”

*Names and some details have been changed to protect identities.