Most people considering suicide want someone to save them. What we need is a culture in which no one
is afraid to ask. What we needed were the questions people could use to help save us. That’s why the
pioneering change the C-SSRS is enabling is so essential to our humanity.
– Kevin Hines,
suicide attempt survivor
The Columbia Lighthouse Project
Kevin Hines Letter
I am a suicide survivor. On a deeply personal level, I understand the power of Dr. Kelly Posner-Gerstenhaber’s vision, the reason it works, the lives it is saving around the world, and its vast potential to save millions more.
I am Kevin Hines. 17 years ago, at the age of 19, I jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. Immediately after I leapt, I regretted it; I wanted to live. Somehow, against all odds, I survived the four-second, 25-story fall into the frigid waters below. Afterward, I made a commitment to living well with my mental illness: bipolar disorder with psychotic features. With a best-selling memoir and worldwide speaking engagements, I’ve also made it my life’s work to educate people to understand mental illness and prevent suicide.
When I learned about Dr. Posner Gerstenhaber’s work, I was excited. When I met her, I knew I’d found someone who was just as passionately committed to this cause — and who has the vision, values, passion, dedication, and leadership qualities to make this a better world for everyone.
When I took that bus ride to the bridge, I wanted someone to save me. I was outwardly upset, and I privately wished the bus driver or a passenger would ask me what was wrong. After I got off the bus, I paced on the bridge, sobbing and hallucinating, essentially waiting for someone to stop me. A tourist approached — and asked me to take her picture. After she left, I took the leap.
The Video: The Suicide The Ripple Effect Film Featuring Dr. Kelly Posner, as one of the films clinical experts, and dedicated advocates/agents of change is below, click on the vid. Take the time to learn about a film that is going to change lives when it drops in early 2018.
Like me, most people considering suicide want someone to save them. What we need is a culture in which no one is afraid to ask. That’s why the change Dr. Posner Gerstenhaber is leading is revolutionary.
With the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), she’s applied scientific rigor to create a series of questions that can be asked by anyone, anywhere, to identify people at risk and get them the help they need. But more than that, thanks to her relentless efforts, she’s providing the leadership so people feel empowered and emboldened to ask. That’s why she is providing the C-SSRS for free for use in all community and healthcare settings, and will not rest until she convinces everyone, everywhere to “just ask” to save lives.
The power of her vision is exemplified by the strides she has made with the military — a culture in which service members often believe admitting any problems is a sign of weakness and may jeopardize their careers. Yet Dr. Posner Gerstenhaber worked with military leadership while they embraced the use of the C-SSRS, with life-saving results. The U.S. Marine Corps, for example, equipped counselors, chaplains, attorneys, medical staff, financial advisors, and other personnel to ask the C-SSRS questions. In 2014, they identified more than 900 Marines who were having suicidal thoughts and, by offering them help, were able to reduce the number of suicides in the service by more than 20 percent from 2013 to 2014.[KP1]
Similarly, she has helped parents and school officials overcome their unfounded fear that asking children about suicidal thoughts and behaviors will put the idea into their heads, so school districts across the country have started to ask. For example, New York City’s Department of Education has trained nurses in all its middle and high schools to use the C-SSRS. In Tennessee, just two weeks after Dr. Posner Gerstenhaber began training its school personnel on C-SSRS use in 2013, the staff at one school identified a 9-year-old boy as being at risk for suicide: His answers to the scale’s questions revealed a previous attempt to take his own life.
Country by country, state by state, person by person, Dr. Posner Gerstenhaber is making it easier for people to talk about and ask someone about suicide. As the first step in saving their lives, nothing could be more important.