EDUCATION
Jones County Suicide Prevention Coalition members reviewed the programs of the past school year and looked forward to plans for the upcoming school year at their July meeting.
The July 25 meeting was led by Giuliana Larosa with Augusta University and held at the Jones County Library. It was the first meeting for the group since May.
Larosa gave a recap of the Positive Norms and Project Alert programs at Clifton Ridge Middle School. She reported that there were a total of 11 Catch My Breath classes during the year that focused on the dangers of vaping and tobacco use.
She said the goal of Jones County’s Partners in Prevention Project is to reduce the early use of alcohol, tobacco and electronic cigarettes.
Larosa said they would like to incease the number of members and suggested including some students and the faith-based community in programing. She said the readiness assessments were completed, and Jones County scored in the 3 range, which is ‘vague awareness.’
“Community members may know there is an issue but are not doing anything about it,” she said.
She said the 11-week Project Alert Program that was implemented at CRMS had been reduced to six weeks. The reason for paring down the program was to more easily fit into school schedules.
Jones County’s coordinator for the coalition is Joy Carr. She questioned what was being left out of the program to reduce it. Larosa said it was the illegal drugs and criminal aspect that had been cut down.
Carr said she presented that program, and the hard drugs session seemed to have more student engagement.
Larosa said one of the next steps for PIPP is to provide materials to Gray Station Middle School. She said the Catch My Breath programs were scheduled at Clifton Ridge and JCHS. The teachers in the coalition said Dennis Woolfolk was involved in the PIPP programs at Clifton Ridge, and his new position as JCHS principal would be a plus.
The speaker said the suicide numbers for Jones County remain low. She said there was one possible overdose in May and zero in June.
Larosa said July was the one-year anniversary for implementation of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
The program’s website states the federally mandated number, 988, became available to all landline and cell phone users, providing a single three-digit number to access a network of over 200 local and statefunded crisis centers July 16.
The website has 988 Partner Tool Kit with more resources and suggestions.
The speaker said the Jones County Suicide Coalition Facebook page reached 197 people, and Linktree has even more resources, including a QR code to connect to QPR (question, persuade, report) training applications.
She said the QPR training is free and can be either virtual or in person. Jones County has 16 law enforcement officers who have received QPR training.
She said PIPP materials have been distributed at Jones County’s Juneteenth Celebration, Teachers’ orientation and the Back to School Bash.
Carr mentioned that September is Suicide Prevention month and suggested it was time to start planning. Shanna Backus suggested having a “purple out” at a football game or on a Friday to get the community involved.
Carr said the sidewalk art drawings supporting Suicide Prevention were popular.
“I have some chalk, but I need a lot more,” she said.
The next meeting of the Jones County Suicide Prevention Coalition is scheduled Aug. 22. The location of the meeting is to be announced.
