Hotlines Not Enough to Fight Suicide Epidemic

Robyn Berger’s question was simple and honest, but perhaps terrifying, and it went unanswered.

“How are you feeling?” Ms. Berger, a director with the Family Service League, asked the group of about 40 who had assembled for a discussion of youth mental health at the Montauk Firehouse last Thursday.

Ms. Berger’s question came just over a year after the death of Tyler Valcich, a 20-year-old volunteer firefighter and Montauk resident who had graduated from East Hampton High School in 2011. His death led to the formation of the Tyler Project, a campaign to improve youth mental health services and end the epidemic of suicide among young people, currently the second leading cause of death among those ages 15 to 24. The Tyler Project and the Family Service League co-sponsored last Thursday’s gathering.

When no one offered a response to her question, Ms. Berger and colleagues from the Family Service League posed some more: “What did you need last year from us? What do you need now?”

Then, the silence slowly yielded to candid conversation, in which a small group of those young people — including a high school senior and a handful of Tyler Valcich’s friends and peers — asked for more mental health education in schools and more safe places in the community for those who are at risk or who are already facing some kind of crisis.

Fallon Bloecker, who knew Mr. Valcich, advocated for schools to do more and compared the need for mental health education to the talks about drunken driving or texting while driving that students periodically see. “You need to incorporate that more than one time a year,” Ms. Bloecker said. “If we started worrying about mental health younger, it would be so much more helpful.”

To those in attendance — many of whom could have been her parents’ age or older — Ms. Bloecker, 20, also called for age-appropriate support. “No offense, but there’s no way I would sit and spill my guts to 75 percent of this room,” she said.

Pat Fallon, 23, who also knew Mr. Valcich, said support systems need to go beyond the traditional idea that merely providing a 24-hour hotline for crisis intervention is helpful.

“That’s not how you talk to people of this age,” Mr. Fallon said. “You have to engage with these people in a way that’s meaningful.”

He laid out his vision for a comfortable, private space — one with a couch, a coffee maker, and a real person trained not only to listen but also to help — that could be available at a community center, church, or other publicly accessible place in town, pretty much anytime of the day or night.

Dr. Larry Weiss, chief program officer of the Family Service League, replied by saying it is called the “living room model” and that it is being talked about as a possibility.

Ms. Berger urged those in attendance to sign up for a program called safeTALK, which trains people — real, everyday folks, not just credentialed mental health professionals — to understand the warning signs that show someone may be suicidal. SafeTALK then shows people how to carefully and properly speak to him or her to be able to get that person through the immediate crisis. By the end of last Thursday’s forum, 25 people had signed up to receive the training. The three-hour program is free and local, with more information available by calling 369-0104.

During the forum, Mr. Weiss announced that a successful family health program in the Springs School District will expand to the Montauk School District beginning in September. Dubbed the Community Behavioral Health Collaborative, the idea behind it is to help parents support their children’s mental health and identify kids who are at risk of related behavioral problems.

“The ideal place for that is schools that have elementary-aged children,” Dr. Weiss said. “If you catch it early and you provide parent support, education, and counseling, we can avoid the more costly and difficult-to-obtain mental health services later on.”

Ronit Reguer, one of the two social workers who run the Springs program, said the Montauk program will be closely modeled after the one in Springs. The biweekly program consists of a parent resource night and a “family strengthening program,” in which families have dinner and do therapeutic activities together. It is an offshoot of the South Fork Behavioral Health Initiative, which recently received an additional $175,000 from New York State.

“It’s the nip-it-in-the-bud mentality,” Ms. Reguer said. “It’s helpful for both the parents and the kids to know there is support.”

After the forum ended last Thursday, Thea Grenci, who was a close friend of Tyler Valcich’s before his death, said she was pleased with the openness of the discussion, but wished that more young people were there to witness it.    “One year later, the feelings are stronger,” Ms. Grenci said. “We want people to be more aware of what’s going on today. . . . You have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

A walk for awareness of suicide prevention, sponsored by the Tyler Project and the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation, will take place on Sunday. The event begins at 10 a.m. at the Montauk Pavilion and will take participants around Fort Pond.