PUBLIC HEALTH
Jones County’s Suicide Prevention Coalition members recently met at the Jones County Library to continue their work to bring awareness of drug issues and prevention of death by suicide in the community.
Brandon Warrick, Community Program Coordinator at Augusta University, led the March 28 meeting. He started the program with the good news that there were no reported suicide deaths in Jones County in January or February.
A look back at 2022 shows there were eight suicide deaths for the year with three of them taking place in August. Those numbers were up from 2021 statistics that show three suicide deaths for the year.
For those past two years 91 percent of those deaths were white, and 82 percent were males. The highest age group was from 35 to 44. The most used method for death by suicide is firearms.
Warrick mentioned the Hold My Guns program, which is unique because it was founded by gun owners. The purpose of that initiative is to help prevent suicide, but its website states it can also help prevent the use of stolen firearms in crimes and negligent shootings.
The program partners with gun shops to make a difference in their communities by utilizing their firearms storage space to helpsave lives, protect property and preserve rights.
The majority of those attending the March 28 meeting were educators, and Warrick asked their opinion of summer mailers for students. He suggested to mailing for high school students, but the educators suggested including middle school students and possibly fifth and sixth graders.
The mailers would have positive messaging, action steps and links for resources. Warrick said the mailers in other counties also had QPR (question, persuade, report) information.
Marketing suggestions for students to spread the message that help is available and where to find it were bracelets, stickers and pop sockets for students; and pens, sticky notes and pencils for teachers.
Jones County Family Connection Coordinator Joy Carr said she received a supply of bracelets and medicine lock boxes to distribute. She said she also has Deterra Drug Deactivation and Disposal Pouches that can deactivate dangerous drugs. She said the pouches are easy to use and then can be safely disposed of.
Warrick said the marketing ads on shopping carts at Ingles had been switched out to include the 988 information and QR codes that if scanned connect to Linktree that also provides available resources.
He said posters with positive messages and support resources have been placed in Jones County schools and are routinely replaced with fresh messaging.
The next item on the program was QPR training. Warrick said 300 people in Jones County have received the training. It was suggested that QPR stickers could be placed on school room doors and offices of those who have received the training. The idea was to let anyone needing help, or just someone to talk to, know that person was available and able to help.
That idea led to a conversation about adding QPR training to pre-planning training for teachers. Carr said Dr. Trevis Killen, executive director of student service, had already approved the QPR training.
Warrick talked about the Sensitive Subjects area in the Jones County Library. He said the area contains books about suicide prevention and other emotion issues such as divorce, grief and depression.
The section includes 44 children’s books. The Partner in Prevention Project is funded by a grant from the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities.
The catalyst for the project was statistics released by DBHDD in 2016 that showed age-adjusted suicide rates that ranked Jones County 10th in the state and number one in its region.
But Jones County was not alone in alarming statistics. Richmond County was also struggling with a high suicide rate, and Augusta University applied for and received a grant from DBHDD to help both counties reduce those numbers.
The first Jones County meeting was held in July of 2019, sponsored by Family Connection and Augusta University, and from that meeting the Jones County Suicide Prevention Coalition was formed. The coalition started meeting monthly the following September.
The next meeting of the coalition is scheduled at 10 a.m. April 25.
