A former Fairfax County firefighter has taken an active interest in suicide prevention since retiring last August.

Karrie Leigh Boswell served the Fairfax County Fire Department for over 27 years.

A self-described activist, she spent time lobbying in Richmond and DC for line of duty death benefits during her career.

She recently shifted her focus to suicide prevention following Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff’s apparent death by suicide in April.

“I started doing research,” Boswell said. “I was looking for information about how to assist our members…within the fire department on how to handle this because we [the Fairfax County Fire Department] have never had a suicide of an active duty member.”

Boswell says that while Mittendorff was the county’s first active duty death by suicide, she could think of four co-workers who died by apparent suicide, after they retired.

In doing research, Boswell found the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a non-partisan organization whose mission is to “save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.”

Boswell was interested to learn that the AFSP was hosing an advocacy forum in DC. This forum, which lasted from June 12 to June 15, included a full day of talks by leading experts in the suicide prevention field, a trip to Capitol Hill to lobby a key piece of mental health legislation, and breakout sessions about advocacy.

Boswell registered, hoping it would be “educational opportunity to learn from some of the subject matter experts in suicide prevention.”

While the forum was not specifically targeted at firefighters, Robert Gebbia, CEO of AFSP, immediately identified firefighters as a group that is at high risk to die by suicide. Boswell confirmed that firefighter suicide across the nation is on the rise. She attributed the increase to the trauma, stress, anxiety and PTSD that goes along with the job.

Firefighter deaths by suicide is not the only rate that is increasing. In a panel about suicide prevention research, Catholic University psychology professor David Jobes said 42,773 Americans die by suicide annually, and that number is rising.

“I’m blown away when I hear numbers like 42,000 Americans,” Boswell said. “I did not know it was that high.”

Death by suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in America.

Multiple speakers at the forum, including Senators Bill Cassidy and Chris Murphy, said that statistics show that if more money is spent on research, mortality rates decrease. But the inverse is also true.

The AFSP showed a chart of how medical research funding is allocated. HIV/AIDS research receives ten percent of the budget, with $2.9 billion in funding. Suicide prevention receives $37 million.

In the past ten years, the mortality rate of HIV/AIDS has dropped over 50 percent, the chart showed. Deaths by suicide have increased by over 20 percent in the same amount of time.

Boswell said this was one of the biggest takeaways from the panel day.

“Money provided the research, which provided the cures and the treatments,” she said. “And when you see the tiny, small amount of money that goes into suicide prevention and you see a rising number, it’s not rocket science. You have to fund the research in order to find a cure for the illness.”

The group spent Tuesday advocating for a Senate and House bills that would reallocate funding to suicide prevention and mental health research.

Boswell said she is glad to have participated in the Forum. She said the connections she made for Fairfax County’s Out of Darkness Walk in September are huge.

Out of Darkness Walks are ASPF-sponsored walks to raise money and awareness for suicide prevention. Fairfax County is hosting one in September. Boswell said it is the fire department’s goal to raise $150,000.


http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/former-fairfax-firefighter-advocates-for-suicide-prevention-research/article_8d2d2056-34cb-11e6-8921-b7917178212f.html


http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-168/issue-12/features/firefighter-suicide-the-need-to-examine-cultural-change.html





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2016 10:32AM by Fox News.
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if one is poisoned and susceptible to not beign able to bring home meals and being eaten by a bear they will feel suicidal (blood poisoning, chemical, depends)

if one's organs are failing they will either feel suicidal or feel death is no longer to be avoided

if one as complex PTSD one will relive a bad momemt until it kills them and will feel suicidal. a natural reflex, for example: an ant which is causing a line of thousands of ants to follow a dying path or bridge will freeze an die in it's tracks by seeing it is leading others incorrectly

no sharps

this is rediculous becaues it's illegal to "detain others against their will" even though it may give opportunity to such an illness (noting: most live through it)

and how to do this in a controlled environment is ...

already funded up the ass, out, in, and back again

> if one as complex PTSD one will relive a bad
> momemt until it kills them and will feel suicidal.
> a natural reflex, for example: an ant which is
> causing a line of thousands of ants to follow a
> dying path or bridge will freeze an die in it's
> tracks by seeing it is leading others incorrectly

unfortunately serial murderers seem to not have this natural reflex or at least evade it well