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WBM january 2018
MS. BRADFORD: I lost my brother, Tim,
20 years ago. I’ve made it my goal to keep
suicide from going laterally in my family.
To bring awareness of how much risk your
family is in once this has touched your
family in any way.
DR. BROWN: Awareness is huge. I’ve been
impacted by four different episodes. You’re
watching this life and it’s like listening
to a beautiful piece of music and then
somebody suddenly lifts up the needle and
they’re gone. The music has stopped and
there’s a lot of confusion.
MS. BRADFORD: There were over 40 deaths
by suicide in this county in 2014 and that’s
higher than the number of people who died
from breast cancer, higher than the num-ber
of people who died from colon cancer.
We’ve got to unmask this so it gets more
publicity.
MS. ELMENDORF: I believe the No. 1 myth
is that if we talk about it, it will suggest it
to someone. It doesn’t. That’s all the more
reason to be authentic and take our masks
off and be vulnerable because people value
vulnerability.
MS. ROGGEMAN: It’s not in socio-economic
classes or races, it really affects us all — it
goes back to that adage it takes a village; it
takes a whole community to really address
the issue.
DR. BENNETT: These things are also trans-generational.
Somebody died who I was
close to, and they haven’t gotten over it or
gotten through it, they never processed it
with anybody.
MS. BRADFORD: In my family to this day,
I cannot casually say, ‘remember that time
Uncle Tim did … whatever.’ They still can’t
handle the conversation.
DR. BENNETT: It keeps the pain intact. I
tell my patients, don’t waste your pain, let’s
deal with it, let’s face it.
MS. ELMENDORF: I lost my husband to
suicide, his grandfather took his life, and
then I lost my 19-year-old son in 2003. I
started this presentation with young people
in high school, and I have found that the
more isolated they are, the more vulnerable
they become. My son was a meek, shy, bul-lied
Christian kid. Christian kids are really
hard on themselves because if they blow it,
they think well, it’s over, I’m better off dead
than alive.