“Mental health challenges impact all demographics and each of these has their own cultural way of addressing them,” says Robin C. Payne, executive director of NAMI Western Carolina. “As such, we are careful not to assume we know what is best for a community. Instead we try to create opportunities for open discussions and see how we can provide the resources that are needed.”
Picture books are a way for caregivers to guide children through challenging topics, like new siblings and potty training. Asheville-based child psychotherapist Jillian Kelly-Wavering wrote a children’s book to guide children ages 7-12 through another challenge: a parent’s suicide.
My Grief Is Like the Ocean is written by Kelly-Wavering and illustrated by Jessica Biles, who is based in New York. The pair worked together on the book throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and relied on Google Docs and Zoom for their collaboration.
On July 15, the federal government debuted 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a new, easy-to-remember dialing code that operates differently from National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
While the overall number of emergency department visits was lower in 2020 than in 2019, potentially due to people avoiding hospitals out of COVID-19 concerns, the proportion of visits by teens with thoughts of suicide increased. Among North Carolina kids age 10 to 14, suicidal ideation visits accounted for 3.5% of all ED visits in 2020, up from 2.4% in 2019.
Deaths, injuries and fires are all in a day’s work for emergency service workers. They may also be part of a shift for Trauma Intervention Programs of WNC volunteers, who provide emotional first aid to family, friends and bystanders after traumatic events. This is the message that Hendersonville Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Justin Ward […]
Patti Best describes her youngest son, Jared Best, as thoughtful, talented and highly intelligent. Following his older brother into the Army, Jared served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan before returning home to Haywood County in 2014. However, the toll of combat and the physical harm caused by close contact with explosive devices left Jared with […]
The 20 years that Kevin Mahoney served in the U.S. Air Force might sound like a dream deployment for some. Mahoney, who lives in Asheville, joined at 24 and trained as a cryptolinguist in Arabic and Farsi. The Air Force deployed him to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. He was able to travel […]
“Veterans have earned the care the Charles George affords them, but how much better would it be if we pursued peace and didn’t ask our citizens to participate in military actions the world over?”
“I thought Asheville has a bail reform group that helps people in jail make bail.”
“Often we can reach folks better through technology than we can face to face,” says Shane Lunsford of the Center for Psychiatry and Mental Wellness. As telehealth service offerings and technological capabilities expand, providers around the region are excited about the possibilities of new models of seeing patients and providing care.
“So come observe International Day of Peace Friday, Sept. 21, 11:30 a.m. at the Elder and Sage Community Gardens on Page Avenue in downtown Asheville.”
“While the threat of domestic terrorism is certainly real and merits public attention, when regarded dispassionately and juxtaposed with American suicide statistics, one must ask, which is the greater problem in our society?”
The phones at Listening Hearts Crisis Center will stop ringing in less than two weeks when the local suicide hotline disconnects indefinitely and suspends its services on April 1.
Buncombe County struggles with a high suicide rate, and though old wives’ tales say that letting someone talk about killing themself will make them more likely to do it, local health experts disagree. “That is not true. It’s actually the opposite,” says Sue Brooks, executive director of All Souls Counseling Center at 35 Arlington St. […]
A man committed suicide by jumping off the Smokey Park Bridge this week. Should Xpress have published his name?
