Demand access to mental health care services

Suicide has rocked my family.

In memory of my child, Katie Thew, who battled chronic pain and died by suicide on Oct. 6, 2022, I offer this article to help other families avoid this grief.

Rampant mental health challenges including depression, with more and more communities recognizing they lack adequate resources to help, inspired the creation of a month (September) devoted to suicide prevention which recently passed. Now our family is mourning another milestone, the two-year anniversary of Katie’s death.

Each of us can learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and a crisis. The National Alliance on Mental Illness helps individuals and families learn how to address the challenges of mental illnesses.

Please consider visiting the state of Washington NAMI website at https://namiwa.org to learn more. There are also courses like QPR that help laypeople learn how to recognize and respond to a mental health crisis. Information on QPR courses can be found online at https://qprinstitute.com/. One thing taught in QPR is that we can call 988 for help 24/7.

What can each of us do to help? We can become trained on how to help prevent suicides and becoming QPR gatekeepers. We can demand healthcare systems improve access to mental health services. In short, we can learn how to help support those who may not be able to help themselves.

Dr. Pam Kohlmeier

Spokane