September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and Illinois PTA has highlighted Safe2Help Illinois when it was first announced in 2020 and covered the new 988 Suicide Prevention Lifeline (an alternative to the 800 number) in our Weekend Update newsletter. As part of its efforts for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, the Child Mind Institute is sharing numerous resources on children and suicide in both English and Spanish.

Most of the articles from the Child Mind Institute include a brief bullet point list of what you’ll learn from the article, a quick read that summarizes the key points of the article, and the full article itself. Included in their suicide awareness materials are:

Finally, if you have firearms in your home, make sure that they are securely stored. Suicide rates among children and teens who live in homes with guns are four times higher than among those in homes without guns. Research shows that the suicide risk with firearm possession in homes with children can be reduced, though not eliminated, by storing firearms locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Any one of those three changes cuts the risk of child suicide in half. Only 10% of gun-owning adults with children are aware that the presence of a firearm in the home increases the risk of suicide.