Suicide Prevention Updates From Across the State

Friday, September 21 was our bimonthly Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition meeting. There are great things going on across the state that are helping increase the awareness of suicide prevention.

Lincoln Suicide Prevention Coalition

• They are in the process of providing a Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Primary Care Practices to doctors’ offices across Lincoln. They have had success and the word is traveling so other offices are reaching out to them to implement it as well.
• Lincoln Public Schools has conducted a Suicide Behavior Questionnaire the last couple of years. Last year 1,000 students were referred and screened after the initial results of the questionnaire came in. Of those, 800 students were referred for further care. Feedback from this questionnaire was positive. Everyone using it liked that it provided common language to use throughout collaboration of care of each student. This year, parochial schools across Lincoln as well as some colleges have reached out to see how they can implement the questionnaire for their students.

Omaha Metro Area Suicide Prevention Coalition (MASPC) and LOSS Team

• The 13minutes PSA will now be airing on the radio on the Husker Football channel.
• The Kim Foundation and Region 6 Behavioral Healthcare have partnered with UNO Athletics to raise more awareness about the 13minutes campaign for a new audience. At the 13^th minute of each period in hockey and each half in basketball, as well as the 13^th point for each volleyball game, 13minutes campaign information will scroll around the arena on the ribbon board. The MASPC will have a booth at six games this year to promote suicide prevention and mental health awareness. In addition, the PSA will be shown at every hockey game.
• The Metro Area LOSS Team is now reaching out to every county in the Region 6 area including: Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Dodge, and Washington.

Nebraska LOSS

• The Four Corners LOSS Team, which includes York, Butler, Seward, and Polk counties, will be active on November 1.
• The Southwest NE LOSS Team hosted a community awareness event in North Platte to gain support for their efforts. Their hope is to be active by December 1.
• Beatrice is also working to create a LOSS Team in their area.
• With the four existing LOSS Teams and the three pending LOSS Teams, we should have Nebraska blanketed with support and resources for suicide loss by this time next year.

Kailey Kocourek, Project Coordinator for The Kim Foundation

Kailey joined The Kim Foundation in July 2018 as the Project Coordinator. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from UNO in Public Health and is currently working towards her Master’s in Public Health from UNMC, expecting to graduate in May 2019. She was drawn to the non-profit world because of her passion for helping and educating others. In her spare time, she enjoys baking and spending time with her husband, Ethan, and two children, Kaiden and Emry.