When a life ends too soon

Stories told by friends and family talk of the young, funny teenager; a friend to everyone, boisterous, everyone knew when he was around. And then, one day, the word spread quickly, he was dead. And the death was preventable – the death was suicide.

Friends and family many times say the same thing; I didn’t know. She always seemed happy or he was the life of the party. But inside, the life was lonely, depressed, scared, or even possibly drowning pain with drugs or alcohol. The signs were there, but who would believe it? This loved and loving person couldn’t really mean it when she said she was going to kill herself. But she did mean it, and so do all those who attempt suicide and tell someone before they take that final plunge.

The problem isn’t always that others ignore it. Many times the suicidal talk is veiled in terms that only others from the same culture would recognize, according to Paul Quinnett, Ph.D., president and CEO of The QPR Institute Inc. in Spokane, Wash. And for those who do survive a suicide attempt, the one thing they tell others is once they started, they realized that they did not want to die.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those ages 15-24. Among those who commit suicide, about 90 percent have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and most predominantly are suffering from depression, according to Quinnett. In addition, many are using alcohol and drugs.

But choosing life isn’t as simple as turning back the hands of time. Communication and a better understanding of mental health issues by society is key.

Quinnett, who has worked in the mental health field and suicide prevention for many years, has seen improvements, but not enough when so many lives are still being lost each day.

“The reality is that we are spending insufficient funds in this area,” he said. “There are people out there doing good, but the amount of money spent on research and service delivery to youth is underfunded.”

For example, he added, in his state of Washington, two people a week commit suicide and less than $350,000 is spent for suicide prevention in his state each year. That’s 100 suicides a year and from a public health perspective, the funding ranks near the bottom. And that is true in most states, Quinnett said.

According to information from QPR, 14 percent of American youths 12-17 experienced at least one episode of major depressive disorder, and more than 7 percent thought about killing themselves. An estimated 712,000 youths tried to kill themselves during their worst or most recent major depressive episode.

“We need to get these youths at the first thought of suicide,” Quinnett said. “We need to reach out to all of them who have these thoughts and voice them, because we don’t know which ones will take the journey to act upon the suicide.”

The suicidal youth goes from an idea to planning out the suicide and are motivated by stopping the pain, Quinnett explained.

The best way to combat suicide is to get help for the suicidal person. But because of the stigma that is connected to mental health issues that often puts the suicidal person out of touch with those who could help him.

“The missing piece is research,” Quinnett said. “We have the evidence that we can save lives, but we need a greater educational program. These are preventable deaths.”

Educating the public is key to suicide prevention. Understanding the signs and following the right procedures can help a suicidal teen to the help he needs and prevent a death. For Quinnett’s organization, QPR – Question, Persuade and Refer – that means teaching lay persons and professionals to recognize and respond positively to someone exhibiting suicide warning signs and behaviors.

It’s estimated that 60-70 percent of suicides could be prevented with any education, along with intervention from the mental health and medical community, according to Quinnett.

Active Minds Inc. in Washington D.C. is working in a similar method on college and some high school campuses, as well as community organizations.

“Our goal is to change the conversation on mental health,” said Alison Malmon, executive director of Active Minds. “We need to break the silence and educate and enlighten everyone on mental health issues.”

The organization works to increase students’ awareness of mental health issues and provide resources, as well as serve as a liaison between students and the mental health community.

Malmon founded Active Minds in 2001 when she was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, a year after the suicide of her brother, Brian, who was receiving treatment for schizoaffective disorder. Malmon wants to end the stigma of mental illness and believes that is done by talking about it and not staying silent. Active Minds works with students to empower them to tell their stories and reach out to friends, so they know they are not alone.

“People need to know where help is,” she said. “We need to change the culture around mental health so people will seek the help they need. The stigma exists because of silence.”

Active Minds members tell stories and share experiences as the organizations goes across the country, but also encourages mental health issues to be included in pop culture, movies and conversations.

“It’s not just psychiatrists who can help, but all of us can,” she said. “While we may not be able to be the one to ‘save’ a friend, we can get that friend to the help he or she needs.”

For example, if a friend tells you he is going to kill himself, take him seriously. Then take him to a counseling center or call one. For anyone seeking help, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a call away, 800-273-TALK (8255), and that number directs the caller to the center in her area where she can talk live with someone who can help.

However, Malmon said, if you’re extremely worried about a friend, take him directly to the hospital. “It’s better to err on the side of caution.”

She also warns that it’s not your job as a friend or family member to make the suicidal person feel better; it’s your job to assist them to seek professional help.

Even though we may not want to believe our loved one would kill himself, it happens and it happens, in many cases, with warning. Know the signs and intervene, the experts say.

According to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, warning signs include:

· Observable signs of serious depression – unrelenting low mood, pessimism, hopelessness, desperation, anxiety, psychic pain and inner tension, withdrawal and sleep problems.

· Increased use of alcohol and/or drugs

· Recent impulsiveness and taking unnecessary risks

· Threatening suicide or expressing a wish to die

· Making a plan – giving away prized possessions, sudden or impulsive purchase of a firearm, obtaining other means of killing oneself, such as poisons or medications

· Unexpected rage or anger

The majority of those who do kill themselves have told others of their plan. If someone is talking about or making plans to commit suicide, the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention warns not to leave that person alone and to remove him from the vicinity of anything he could use for suicide. Find professional help, whether at a clinic or hospital, or call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Being a part of the solution to suicide prevention is something the faith communities have also been working on. A 2009 report, “The Role of Faith Communities in Preventing Suicide,” looks at the issue to find faith communities’ role in prevention.

Developing and disseminating accurate information and collaborating with mental health clinicians are two things churches, synagogues and other worship centers can do. Many times, clergy are brought in after the fact, but being keyed into the community resources can make them a valuable tool in suicide prevention.

For the Rev. Glenn Meyer of Mount Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Ind., connecting to community resources is a necessity. As a pastor who recently arrived at his new church home, keying into those resources is a priority.

“It’s a moral responsibility by us to make connections to community and youth,” he said.

Bringing youth together with adults they can trust and talk with is also a key, he added. “Kids don’t only need peers, but they need to interact with others, as well.”

That’s echoed by the non-profit organization, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA). “It’s OK to go to an adult to help a friend,” said Chloe Grabanski, communications and benefit coordinator for the organization that is “dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. “

TWLOHA battles the stigma of mental health issues, adding to the conversation through its Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as meeting people where they are – at college campuses, communities and through music that is a large part of life.

With deep roots in music and collaborating with artists wearing its T-shirts that help to raise funds for the organization and programs it supports, TWLOHA has given $750,000 to treatment and recovery programs.

It also has begun its I Am Alive partnership with Hope Line to begin an online crisis counseling program to offer help through instant messages.

“Just be there. Show them love, care and listen,” Chloe suggested when reaching out to someone in crisis.

TWLOHA began in 2006 telling a story to help a friend by selling T-shirts to help pay for that friend’s treatment, using a MySpace page. From there grew the organization that has taken the conversation on the road, speaking its message of hope and help at concerts, universities, festivals and churches.

Some have started the conversation and are making information about mental health a part of every day life. More funding for research and implementation continues to be something organizations work toward by keeping the conversation going and growing. Increasing awareness, fighting for accessible mental health programs and combating the stigma of the issue continues – all to save a life from ending too soon.

Gulf oil spill wildlife rescue efforts move along

The impact of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on wildlife may not be known for years, but work is ongoing to assist the wildlife that is impacted now. Veterinarian Joe Smith of the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo in Fort Wayne, Ind., is the information liaison between all the Association of Zoos and Aquariums member zoos and aquariums, government agencies and contracted organizations in the coordinated effort to work with and assist wildlife.

The zoos and aquariums are helping find permanent homes for animals that can’t be released because they have been oiled too severely or have injuries that won’t allow the release, Smith says. Those animals are going to zoos and aquariums as ambassadors of their species, he says.

The Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans is coordinating the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program for that state and the Jackson Zoo in Jackson, Miss., is coordinating bird redistribution to other zoos, Smith says.

With a system in place, Smith says, the unknown is still the oil spill’s impact on wildlife overall. This spill is anything but typical of what has been seen in the past when oil spills have been experienced in the oceans and seas.

“This spill is different than the typical oil spill because most of the time there is a confined area that is usually near shore and isn’t continuously spewing oil,” Smith says. “Helpers can get the wildlife all in one area and deal with the situation. But this spill is offshore with an ongoing oil leak, and it’s a much greater area.”

That means that wildlife workers have not seen the mass casualties as in the past, as in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. But instead, it’s been a slow and steady trickle of wildlife, Smith explains. “A lot of this depends on the waves, the winds and the weather, where we will see the wildlife impacted,” he says.

Work with sea turtles is happening out to sea as much as possible, where the turtles are treated from boats before they hit the shore because many times that is too late, Smith says.

While external oiling where the wildlife is covered in oil, impacts individual animals, bogging them down, there is also internal oiling and that impact may not be known for quite some time. This happens when the birds, turtles and other ocean wildlife breathe in the oil or preen themselves and ingest the oil in various quantities. This can cause liver and kidney failure and immunization issues long-term, Smith says.

And other impacts are not yet known. “The biggest impact is on the eco-system,” he says. “The impact isn’t yet known for fish and micro-organisms because when they die, they sink to the bottom (of the Gulf).”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is studying fish and other oceanic life, Smith says. NOAA scientists have been capturing fish and assessing their environment, as well as monitoring the time they spend in oiled and unoiled water.

NOAA scientists also have collected tissue samples from sperm whales and other marine mammals, as well as measuring plankton, fish and squid, the primary food for whales, according to releases from NOAA. All of these efforts will help measure the possible effects of the oil on them. “We have assembled an exceptional partnership with world-class academic scientists who will work with us to evaluate the potential for effects from the spill on marine mammals throughout the Gulf,” said Lance Garrison, Ph.D., of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the principal investigator for NOAA.

NOAA and partners are also conducting aerial and boat-based surveys to document potential changes in dolphin populations.

While NOAA is heading these efforts, Smith is coordinating veterinarians and vet techs working in the Gulf. His ties to the Louisiana Gulf – his hometown is Baton Rouge, La. – made him interested and qualified to organize the efforts, he says.

“When the spill first started, I sought out information and found that I had more than what I could find, and it just sort of snowballed,” Smith says.

Climate Change or global warming – wording has different meanings

Global warming has become a contentious term met with both praise and controversy. Most recently, the phrase has been replaced by the term climate change. While scientists don’t agree on global warming, they do agree that the earth’s climate does change. What that means is interpreted differently by diverse scientific thought.

While many call science an exact, others say that science is an ever-evolving hypothesis. And, the future of the climate is one that has predictions from many scientists, but not all come to the same conclusion.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website, while greenhouse gases occur naturally in the earth's atmosphere, human activity also contribute greenhouse gases– primarily through burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And in the past century, carbon dioxide has increased. The average temperature of the earth also has increased about 1.3 degrees F – a correlation pointed to as proof that man is impacting the earth’s temperature.

Brian Kahn, Ph.D. and atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, agrees and says the agency’s work shows that on average the earth’s temperature is rising and that can be traced to man and an increasing use of carbon fuels or the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

However, for Jeff Logsdon, Science and Operations Officer with the National Weather Service Northern Indiana, he believes science proves something much different. While Logsdon does not speak for the National Weather Service – a part of NOAA, he says as a meteorologist, he finds that climate change is a true fact, but that the earth is warming as a whole is not a manmade phenomena or one that will last.

First, the time frame of global warming is a factor that must be considered, Logsdon says. Scientists must look at the earth’s entire history, not just a portion of it. “The past 200 years are just a blink of an eye,” he says.

According to a temperature chart from Logsdon, the earth’s temperatures were in a warming period, the “Medieval Warming Period,” from about 400 AD to around 1100 AD. A cooling period followed, and the “Little Ice Age” was in place from about 1400 AD to about 1800 AD.

Land-based measurements have been kept since the 1800s, which is a relatively short period of time during the earth’s life cycle. Logsdon explains that there is definitely an underlying argument for warming since that time, but that doesn’t mean there’s agreement on cause for that warming.

“The atmosphere tends toward normal, day-by-day, season-by-season, decade-by-decade,” Logsdon says. “Any period where there is unusually warm temperatures is followed by a period of unusually cold temperatures. The atmosphere always tries to balance out and strives for a state of equilibrium.”

To show this, he says to consider what people think as an extreme – it’s because it hasn’t been experienced before in their lifetime. But what if the earth isn’t working its cycle in that same lifetime, he questions.

Kahn of NASA says the earth’s temperature is complicated and must be looked at both at the surface and in the atmosphere. NASA studies the earth’s temperature at both levels to study the climate and for weather forecasting. The decades of record shows both warming of the surface’s temperature, as well as the climate above the earth, he says. In addition, satellite records that have been kept by NASA for more than 30 years also indicate warming temperatures.

“All evidence shows that there is clearly warming,” he says. However, the rate of change on average of 1/10 degree C or 2/10 degree F per decade is not the same everywhere around the world, he adds. There are regions that are warming and others that are not, and some that are cooling. However, on average the temperature is warming, he says.

And, Kahn says, the warming trend can be attributed directly to carbon dioxide. “Humans are largely causing the changes in the climate, which a lot of evidence supports that it is direct and empirical,” Kahn says.

The impact can be seen in the arctic region, where glaciers have melted significantly – one of the most impacted areas. For example, because temperatures are warming in the arctic region, a bark beetle that survives only when temperatures are above freezing is having a longer life cycle and destroying more trees, Kahn explains.

But Logsdon says that the length of the earth’s climate cycles are not known and points to a November 1922 article in the “Monthly Weather Review,” that stated similar findings. “Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted, ” the article stated. While some may say that points to a trend, Logsdon says it points to another period of time when warming was happening and man was not using carbon fuels at the rate he is today.

And Kahn admits that there are other impacts on the earth’s temperatures, but says the most significant is carbon dioxide from the increased use of fossil fuels. Other aspects also can impact warming. For example, cloud feedback is still an unknown factor. Kahn says the warming temperatures have affected clouds and an ongoing study may not have results for use. “If clouds reflect light, they may counteract global warming, but if they don’t reflect light, the warming could be amplified,” he explains.

In addition, the results of the recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland also may not be known for years to come. In the past, significant volcano eruptions have cooled the earth’s temperatures,” Logsdon says.

Nature’s role in climate is much greater than man’s role, Logsdon believes. He points to Mount Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption that resulted in cooling temperatures, and a warming period that immediately followed, attributed to the El Nino.

While Kahn agrees that other factors do attribute to the earth’s changing climate, he believes that science supports that man’s responsibility for the recent warming trend is undeniable.

Scientists continue to study the earth’s climate and temperatures and debate man’s impact and at the same time world leaders debate what policy should be enacted to combat global warming. The question remains, which science should be followed?

Freedom of religion and the separation of church and state debate continues

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The section that deals with religion, known as the Establishment Clause, has become one of the most debated pieces of the document.

First Amendment Center Senior Scholar Charles C. Haynes believes the Establishment Clause stands for "no establishment" -- which, by definition, requires separating church from state.

“The fight for disestablishment in Virginia was the backdrop for James Madison's insistence on ‘no establishment’ on the federal level,” Haynes said. “Even if one only believes that the First Amendment prevents the government from establishing a particular religion, that is still separation.”

However, he said, the disagreement comes with how much separation is required to protect religious liberty. He said both sides go too far and the answer is somewhere in the middle.

That term separation of church and state originated with one of the country’s founding fathers, in a letter Thomas Jefferson penned in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist association in Connecticut.

In the letter, Jefferson states that he believes, as do members of the association, that the religion is a matter between man and his God. Quoting part of the First Amendment, he wrote, “’make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

Since that time, the debate has continued about what is separation of church and state, with courts determining whether the line has been crossed.

Recently, the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of allowing a Ten Commandments display on public property. In ACLU of Kentucky v. Grayson County the court found that a Ten Commandments display in a Kentucky county courthouse did not violate the establishment clause because it was displayed in conjunction with nine other historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence.

In another recent case, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that opening meetings with sectarian prayer by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners violates the First Amendment.

U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty wrote "In making this determination, the Court concludes that the invocation Policy, as implemented, has resulted in Government-sponsored prayers that advance a specific faith or belief and have the effect of affiliating the Government with that particular faith or belief."



However, that doesn’t mean that governmental bodies cannot open meetings with prayer. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that government bodies are constitutionally permitted to open their meetings with a prayer if the prayers are nonsectarian.

At least some of those on both sides of the debate have reached common ground. Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Christian leaders from the evangelical, mainline and Catholic traditions joined with civil liberties leaders to draft Religious Expression in American Public Life: A Joint Statement of Current Law.

“The role of religion in public life has long been a source of controversy and litigation,” said Melissa Rogers, director of Wake Forest University Divinity School’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs, which produced the document. “We have brought together a diverse group of experts on law and religion to clarify what current law has to say about some of these matters.”

This document is the first of its kind to address a wide spectrum of issues related to the role of religion in public life, Rogers said. While it addresses that elected officials are not required to take the oath of office with their hand on the Bible, the document also states that elected officials may refer to religious ideas and communities and talk about their personal beliefs.

However, the debate outside of the group continues, including the Texas State Board of Education’s work on its curriculum. After public outcry, the board did not remove Christmas from a list of religious holidays and observances in a sixth-grade world cultures class, but debate continues on how much emphasis should be given to the religious beliefs of the nation's founding fathers. Some want to highlight their Christian faith, while others want to emphasize the separation of church and state.