Summit focuses on preventing suicide in Alaska

For the first time, agencies, organizations and suicide survivors are uniting to prevent suicide. (Daniel Hernandez/KTUU-DT)

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Barbara Franks' son committed suicide in 1997. She says she didn't find out about the warning signs until years later. (Daniel Hernandez/KTUU-DT)
The theme of the summit is to repair the "net" of support that people have. (Daniel Hernandez/KTUU-DT)

January 13, 2010

by Christine Kim
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- For the first time, agencies, organizations and suicide survivors are uniting for one cause: Preventing suicide.

For Day 2 of the Suicide Prevention Summit, attendees are taking a step together to stop Alaska's second-leading cause of death in teens.

It's what happened more than a decade ago-- in 1997-- that brings Barbara Franks into this room today.

"It hurts, it hurts every day, and you look at warning signs and everything but I didn't know about them. I didn't know about that until I read it in books years after," Franks said.

She lost her son to suicide-- one of the 130 lives lost that year in Alaska.

But it's a tragedy that fuels her passion to spread awareness.

"I hope that my tears fell for them because I wouldn't want them to step one minute in my shoe," Franks said.

She joins about 80 others from all over the state to address the holes in a net of efforts in a state that suffers from the highest suicide rate in the nation.

"We have a very diverse state, so of course some regions have different issues that they need to work on, but we can come up with some statewide efforts that we can all work together on and I think once we do that, we'll have a greater impact on the issue," said Kathy Graves, the director of Behavioral Health.

In the bush, one suicide death can trigger a chain. That's exactly what Brenda Wilson of Eastern Aleutian Tribes sees as she works in eight rural communities.

"If there is a suicide it doesn't just affect that family. It affects anybody who comes in contact with that family such as the school if kids go to school, if they go to a church, if they go to Boys and Girls Club; it affects all of those," Wilson said.

One method of prevention is communication.

"Twenty years ago we couldn't talk about drugs and alcohol. Ten years ago we couldn't talk about tobacco issues in our communities. Today, suicide is a big issue that people don't talk about at all. It's like the elephant in the room and so to be able to open that door and help one person help save one person is immense," Wilson said.

The statewide Suicide Prevention Council says each issue like assault, substance abuse and child neglect are all tied together when it comes to suicide.

So it's important the issue is addressed as a bigger picture.

"This teamwork effort that we have mending the net, there's a lot of holes. There's a lot of people that went through that hole, but I hope that those deaths are not in vain and that the work that we're doing today, others will be able to say ‘Thank you' tomorrow," Franks said.

It's with one life at a time that advocates like Wilson and Franks say will make the world a better place.

If you think someone might commit suicide, here are some of the warning signs: