National Suicide Prevention Week starts Sunday and Marshalltown mental health professionals want the public to know about the significance of seeking support.

Center Associates Clinical Director Kim Hagen said the week provides an opportunity to bring attention to a rising issue and a subject not typically discussed.

“I think suicide is important and often not talked about topic,” Hagen said. “Sometimes I think that we have anxiety and fears of discussing such a sensitive subject and so we tend to not bring it up, especially with adolescence and teens.”

Having been with the mental health agency Center Associates for the past 15 years, Hagen has seen a steady increase in patients with suicidal ideation. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an even greater increase, with isolation and lack of social engagement triggering many people to experience higher rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

Hagen said the strongest increase is within adolescents and teens, with even younger children presenting suicidal ideation in response to what she says are sometimes insignificant life stressors.

“This just shows that our children and teens are not able to emotionally regulate themselves and engage in positive coping skills in order to be able to manage the increased stress that they’ve experienced over the past two years,” she said.

Licensed independent social with Center Associates in Marshalltown Nick Calzada said the need for mental health supports has never been greater.

“Even speaking for myself, my schedule has never been as far out,” he said.

Typically sitting at around eight weeks booked full of appointments, Calzada said he’s currently at almost double, scheduled out for the next 12 to 16 weeks. While National Suicide Prevention Week gives a chance to spread awareness, he said he manages suicide week in and week out.

“It can happen to anyone. Mental health impacts us all,” Calzada said. “It doesn’t matter what race, it doesn’t matter what gender, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. It can impact any of us. It can impact our family. It can impact our friends.”

In the next year, Hagen said all of Center Associates staff will undergo suicide risk assessment training.

“We identified that as being a need within our community and within our own staff and so we are working to train all of our clinicians and staff on that issue,” she said.

Anytime a patient presents with suicidal ideation, their therapist will do a full risk assessment to identify both risk factors and protective factors.

It’s important to be aware of risk factors and symptoms, Calzada said, so others can encourage anyone who needs help to seek it so they’re never alone.

Suicide is a symptom of depression and people should watch for changes in others or themselves.

Warning signs may include an increase in sadness, becoming more emotional or crying for seemingly no reason, crying excessively, developing feelings of hopelessness, feeling like things are not going to get better, feeling stuck in a rut, a change in appetite, a change in sleeping patterns by not getting enough sleep or sleeping excessively, a low energy level or feeling lethargic.

“Suicide can first come across as a crossing thought, such as, ‘I wish I was dead. I wish I wasn’t here. Life sucks'” Calzada said.

Those thoughts can intensify to evolve from a crossing thought into a dwelling thought. The situation is an emergency when the dwelling thoughts turn into developing a plan and intent with access to follow through.

Anyone experiencing suicidal ideation should seek help and anyone concerned about another individual can contact a mental health agency for help or questions. Agencies can be contacted for emergency appointments, but for immediate crisis situations contact the local emergency room or authorities. Hagen said suicidal statements or threats should always be taken seriously.

“It’s not something we should overlook or chalk up to someone seeking out attention,” Hagen said.

When a patient is experiencing suicidal ideation, Calzada always monitors symptoms of depression on each visit, to see if symptoms are getting better, the same, or worse with treatment. A safety plan is developed and agreed upon to ensure the patient is safe and to prevent an attempt, which may include agreeing to get a hold of local authorities to perform a wellness check and/or be taken to the nearest emergency room to perform an evaluation.

Calzada will also help develop positive coping skills to manage stress and improve mood. Those could be improving sleep hygiene, developing journaling habits, identifying extra positive outlets and supports and identifying people who are more toxic for the patient, encouraging exercise and may explore medication if necessary.

Hagen said it’s important to seek out help before it’s too late and feels anyone can benefit from therapy.

“Why wouldn’t you benefit from being able to talk to someone about everything that’s going on in your life and get objective feedback on how to handle it? We have to work on de-stigmatizing therapy and going to therapy. Someone who seeks out help is wanting to better themselves. That is not a weakness at all, that’s actually a strength. We should be seeing that as a positive characteristic for everyone within our community,” Hagen said.

Center Associates in Marshalltown can be reached at 641-752-1585. For those contemplating suicide or looking for resources for another individual, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255 with more resources available at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

Risk factors:

• Personal or family history of self harming behavior, suicidal gestures or attempts.

• Domestic violence or abuse issues.

• Substance or alcohol abuse.

• Mental illness.

• Withdrawal from usual activities, supports or interests.

• Poor problem solving skills.

• Sense of purposelessness

• Lack of access to psychiatric care.

Protective factors:

• Strong supportive connections to friends and family.

• A strong sense of self worth and self esteem.

• Attitudes, values and norms that prohibit suicide.

• Access to a variety of clinical interventions and supports for seeking help.

• Responsibilities and duties to others.

• Opportunities to participate and/or contribute to school or community projects or activities.

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Contact Trevor Babcock

at 641-753-6611 or

tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.