NYPD saves suicidal woman from ending her life. You can see from the video that the woman was on her last leg and lost all hope to live. Officers approached her and grabbed her around her waist to pull her back on top of the roof. Think about what tactics you would use to help someone who is suicidal. If you were in this situation would you have grabbed her right away or would you have negotiated? This is a good video to use for roll call training, to provide dialog for training discussion. Great work NYPD of saving her life and getting her the help she needs!
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What’s your worse fear about death? Is it dying a horrible death by drowning or fire? What about being murdered by gangsters? I honestly believe people do not want to die; we all have a need to survive and live. There are times when we let our minds trick us into thinking death is the only option for a problem we face, but that is not a wanting to die but a wanting to fix an issue. Suicide is more than an issue in the United States it honestly is an epidemic. The stigma associated with it is still huge making the conversation about suicide hard to start and continue. My favorite stigma about suicide is “if you talk about it, people will do it”. Seriously! Do you really believe that? Your local and national news always reports and talks about someone being murdered, does that make you want to go kill someone? We have to drop that stigma and open up the conversation about suicide. I wanted to find numbers of death in the US that were recorded from a source that is creditable so I choose the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The information I am looking at is from 2010 because that is the most accurate information the CDC has currently. In 2010 we had over 300 million people in the US. Lets take a look at some of our fears of death and the reality of what actually kills us. I think death by fire is one of the scariest thought of death for many people. Yearly 2,640 people die by fire. That number actually came form a study done in 2011. Drowning is probably up there with fire for scariest death for a lot of folks. The average amount of deaths by drowning was 3,533 between 2005-2009. Have you heard of the RED campaign? They are advertised in hospitals, musicians release records for them; I think it is a commonly seen logo for a campaign for AIDS/HIV. I’m by no means trying to down play the dieses or say it is not important to tackle the world wide epidemic of it but I was really surprised to see the amount of deaths. In the US there were 8,369 deaths related to the dieses for 2010. I always hear about the gun epidemic in the US and that gun crimes are on a rise. I thought that homicide/murder would be in the top ten for deaths in the US, but I was wrong. The total for homicide deaths was 16,259. I remember the gruesome videos I watched in driver’s education called Red Asphalt and it changed my perspective on safety in vehicles. Locally there are huge media campaigns for safe driving targeting texting, using your phone, driving while intoxicated and more. We even have a seat belt campaign and police stand on street corners to see if you are wearing yours. The total amount of deaths by automobile crashes was 33,687. So where does suicide stand in compared to these? It has to be under homicide because of all the gun crimes I hear about. Surely it is under AIDS/HIV deaths because I am familiar with the campaigns and push for more knowledge. I have seen car crashes on the interstates and in town so I know that claims more lives. If you thought like I did you are wrong, I was wrong. Suicide claims 38,364 lives a year. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. If it is so high how come we don’t hear about it in school, on TV, in the new paper and other outlets? The only reason I can come up with is the stigma. It is much easier to accept the other causes of death because you think there is nothing you could have done to prevented it, it is an accident. It is also hard to accept the fact that to kill yourself means you are the one having the problem. Here it is all together Deaths by Fire 2,640 Water 3,533 AIDS/HIV 8,369 Homicide/Murder 16,259 Automobile 33,687 Suicide 38,364 Have you ever crossed the street to get away from a scary person or group? Have you stayed out of a section of town because of gang problem? You do this out of fear of being harmed and killed. Have you crossed the street to get away from your shadow? How about duck and hide from the person in the mirror? You should because you are twice a likely to die by your own hands than the hands of someone else. That is a scary thought! Say it out loud “you are more likely to die by your own hands than homicide”. That one threw me for a loop. I really hope that this opens up your eyes to the epidemic of suicide in the US. Start the conversation with your family and friends. Talk about how to get help and what clinics are available in your area. It is a lot easier to talk about suicide than talk about the tragedy of loosing a loved one to suicide. National suicide hotline and resources
1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) 1-888-628-9454 Spanish Suicide Prevention Line 1-800-784-2433 www.hopeline.com This will connect you with a crisis center in your area. American Association of Suicidology www.suicidology.org American Foundation for Suicide Prevention www.afsp.org Sibling Survivors of Suicide http://www.siblingsurvivors.com/index.htm SAVE https://www.save.org/ I hope that everyone takes the time to meet David. David is a citizen of Albuquerque who is living on the streets. Unfortunately David is not a unique case but one of many seen across the United States. Police detectives came in contact with David because he was hanging objects in trees along route 66. When asked how long he has been homeless David said, ”Clocks don’t work with me” and that he cannot remember the last time he had a home. David was offered multiple resources and only asked for food. He told detectives that it is hard to carry food with him on the streets so he only eats the food left in trashcans on the street. He said he does not go to food kitchens or food pantries because he does not trust the people around him. He was offered a gift card to Wal-Mart but refused it saying the Wal-Mart card readers do not work for him. Detectives instead went to Wal-Mart and with a $10 gift card they purchased David a backpack, six-pack of water, crackers, cookies and peanut butter. They said David was ecstatic to see the cookies and said it was the first time he’s had cookies in over three years. David was also given a resource book of local programs that he has available to him. David said he wished police would carry around word puzzles or coloring books for people like him to keep their minds stimulate. David showed officers his crayons that he keeps in a waterproof bag and said without mind simulation he gets in trouble. Traditional services in place to help the homeless are hard for David to navigate and find. Unfortunately for David he is left until he reaches a point of crisis for first responders to take him for services at the hospital. |