Brain Injury Awareness Month: Raising awareness about issues that affect brain injury survivors,
March is Brain Injury Awareness month, and the Brain Injury Association of NH is focused on raising awareness about issues that affect brain injury survivors, including the link between brain injury and suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), NH is 12th in the nation when it comes to people taking their lives. That means someone in New Hampshire dies by suicide almost every day; a rate that is 35% above the national average.
Certain people – including those living with brain injury, lifelong or acquired disabilities, veterans, first responders and police officers -- are at an even higher risk for suicide. According to the CDC, adults with disabilities were three times more likely to report suicidal ideation in the past month compared to persons without disabilities.
Joining with other disability organizations
These disproportionate impacts on brain injury survivors led the Brain Injury Association of NH to join with other disability organizations to form the NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention. The result is a public/private partnership of New Hampshire stakeholders that strives to enhance suicide prevention efforts with a focus on often overlooked vulnerable populations such as persons living with disabilities. We are working alongside other groups like the State Suicide Prevention Council to address this important issue. Our website address, www.zerosuicidesnh.org, concisely reflects our ambitious goal – zero suicides. So what are we doing to help?
Through our coalition members, and on our website, www.zerosuicidesnh.org, we share the stories of people who have struggled with mental health and overcome adversity in their battles.
Advocating For Vulnerable Populations
The NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention also plays an advocacy role, monitoring legislation that helps or harms the goal of zero suicides in NH.
For example, we applaud bipartisan efforts such as Senate Bill 85, introduced this session, which seeks to remove barriers such as pre-authorization requirements for emergency behavioral health services and would create a commission to study behavioral health crisis programs. This legislation recognizes the immediacy of the suicide crisis and points to ways that New Hampshire can move to achieve the goal of zero suicide.
On the flipside, we are also monitoring legislation that may work against the goal of zero suicides.
The Brain Injury Association of NH is focused on raising awareness about issues that affect brain injury survivors, including the link between brain injury and suicide.
A prime example of the slippery slope is the situation in Canada, which has one of the most permissive Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) legal frameworks in the world. In 2017, the first full year in which MAiD was in effect, 2,838 people opted for assisted suicide, according to a government report. By 2021, that figure had jumped to 10,064 – accounting for more than 3% of all deaths in Canada that year. A proposed expansion of the law would have enabled those with mental illness and “mature minors” to access MAiD this year– presumably leading to many more assisted suicide deaths. However, mounting opposition led the government to recently call for a one-year suspension of the proposed expansion – to March 2024. “Medical Aid in Dying Is not a Hypothetical “Slippery Slope,” but a Clear and Present Danger.
Through our awareness efforts and our advocacy, the NH Coalition strives to create a help-seeking culture that supports at-risk individuals and reduces rather than increases the frequency of suicide in our society.
For more information about the NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention, visit our website at www.zerosuicidesnh.org. For information about the Brain Injury Association of NH, please call 603/225-8400 or visit www.bianh.org.
Steve Wade is Executive Director of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire.
Letter: Brain injury awareness month
https://www.concordmonitor.com/Wade-cmlett-Wade_-50418436