It’s OK to Say Suicide: A Call to Action This September

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a time set aside to say plainly what too often goes unsaid: that mental health struggles among young people are real, common and treatable, and that talking about them saves lives.

One organization doing extraordinary work in this space is The Jed Foundation (JED), a nonprofit dedicated to protecting emotional health and preventing suicide among teens and young adults. JED partners with high schools and colleges to strengthen mental health and suicide prevention systems, equips young people with the skills to support themselves and each other, and works to mobilize entire communities around youth mental health. This year, JED’s campaign theme is “It’s OK to Say Suicide,” an effort to normalize honest conversations about suicide with friends, family and trusted adults, rather than treating it as a subject too dangerous to name.

The statistics are sobering. Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among young people in this country. But JED’s work, grounded in research, delivered through schools and communities, and built around the idea that support networks matter, is helping to change that trajectory, one school and one student at a time.

This month, a local high school senior, Riley Bartosz (who happens to be my daughter), is running a fundraiser to support JED’s mission. A young person taking initiative on behalf of her peers, using her own voice to raise awareness and resources for a cause this important, is exactly the kind of community action JED depends on to do its work.

If you would like to help support this life-saving effort the JED Foundation leads each day, now is the perfect time. Whether it’s $5 or $100, every gift helps fund programs that reach students before a crisis becomes a tragedy.

You can donate and learn more here:
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/southern-lehigh-school-district/riley-s-fundraiser-for-the-jed-foundation

And if you or someone you know is struggling, help is always available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. That’s a conversation that doesn’t require knowing exactly what to say, just the willingness to start.