GAgives Day on Giving Tuesday 2019

Teen suicide is an epidemic in the United States. Since 2005, suicide has rapidly risen to the second leading cause of death for our 10-24-year-olds according to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Based on the 2017 Youth Risk Behaviors Survey, 7.4 percent of youth in grades 9-12 reported that they had made at least one suicide attempt in the past 12 months.

We see these types of statistics every day and it can be easy to dismiss them, but this hits closer to home for the Counterpane community than you may realize. One of our Counterpane families has a child who attempted suicide at the age of 15; fortunately, she survived. This child's mother advises Counterpane families that "This epidemic is real, and it is happening all around us, even in our own homes."

The safety of our young people is paramount. What can we do to help address this staggering statistic? Together, we can do our part to keep children safe by educating both teens and parents about the signs of suicide, how to help someone in crisis, and where to find support services. Because we believe that education will help pull us out of this epidemic, our GAgives Day campaign will support our efforts to bring to light this important, sensitive issue to the teens and parents and caregivers in our community at large.

Teens: With your help, we can educate our teens with a sponsored showing of Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience for our community at large. This film will “help them build crucial skills to navigate stress, anxiety, and depression in our digital age.” Your donation will allow us to host a screening for free so we can help educate teens (and their parents) in our community at large in a way that speaks to them. 

Parents and Caregivers: To reach parents and caregivers (including you, grandparents!) and give them more specific information and support about youth mental health, we immediately thought of the Youth Mental Health First Aid workshop that Counterpane staff took several years ago. One of our teachers raves about the program: 

"As an Upper School teacher, I understood the relevance of this mental health training and figured the training would be helpful in supporting our teens. Following the training, I posted the suggested Action Plan near my desk so I could refer to it when needed. What I did not realize was that I would be putting it to use so quickly. Several days later, a student reported seeing posts on another student's social media about attempting suicide. Using the Action Plan, I was able to confidently talk to the at-risk teen in a nonjudgmental, reassuring, and supportive manner. We then immediately contacted her parents, explained what was happening, and gave them the same guidance we had been given during the Mental Health First Aid training. In hindsight, the training not only allowed us to help the teen but allowed us to help the parents as well."

Your donation would allow us to host this valuable all-day workshop as a refresher for our staff and allow us to extend an invitation to our community – including you.

With your help, Counterpane can be a source of education and support for the community. Let’s come together to learn how to support a child in crisis and to teach our teens how to get help for depression, one of the most common causes of suicide.