DAHLONEGA, Ga. — Two days after delivering her presentation on suicide prevention at Dawson County’s First Baptist Church Sunday Dr. Janice Darnell, Director of Student Support Services for Dawson County Schools, was in Lumpkin County to address a grief-stricken community at Lumpkin County High School.

Her poignant but vitally important message followed in the wake of two high school students ending their own lives and another overdosing in an apparent suicide attempt last week. Out of respect for the victims, their families and their privacy, Fetch Your News will not mention the names of those students.
Darnell’s presentation was aimed at helping people recognize the warning signs and risk factors associated with suicide. “No family is immune from this,” she said.

Quoting the most recent figures from the Center for Disease Control from 2014, Darnell pointed out Dawson County ranks 8th out of 159 Georgia counties in suicides. It is the second leading cause of death among Georgians between the age of 25 and 34.

The study states that 18 percent of high school students reported seriously considering suicide, 15 percent reported making a serious plan to commit suicide and 9 percent reported making an attempt to commit suicide.

“There is no single path that leads to suicide,” she said. Some of the causes include serious mental illness, sickness, abuse, painful emotional loss and exposure to violence. “Ninety percent of those who have died by suicide have some type of a treatable mental illness,” she said. She also pointed out the importance of recognizing risk factors or symptoms.

Some symptoms of mental health issues can include a sudden, unexplained drop in grades, unusual behavior, interaction with peers, someone who was very outgoing suddenly becoming introverted. A drastic change in appetite, decreased energy, expressed feelings of “no worth” or writing about dark subjects should also send up red flags. Bipolar disorder is one of the leading causes of mental illness.

Some important facts about mental illness include the following: One in five Americans experience some form of mental illnness, nearly one in 25 adults live with a serious mental illness, half of chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14 and 75 percent begins before the age of 24.

The good news is that there are many community resources available to help someone who may be contemplating suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or suicidepreventionlifeline.org and Georgia Crisis & Access Line at 800-715-4225 or mygcal.com. Locally, there is Dawson County Family Connection http://dawson.gafcp.org/ or 706-265-1981.

Tragedy has a way of bringing communities together and that certainly appeared to have been the case in both Dawson and Lumpkin counties as parents, students, educators, clergy, concerned citizens law enforcement officers and elected officials were all there to educate themselves on how to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.