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Joaquin Moreno

Dr. Karen Kwan

Psychology 1100

9 December 2020

Set 3 Discussion:

What can be done to prevent suicides in Utah?

Suicide is something that I've seen all around me as I grew up. I went to Herriman High

school, and in the years that I was there, a total of 13 suicides took place, two of them being my

close friends. It's still something I don't understand and I don't think I ever will, but suicide is

very real and is something everyone needs to be informed about. High school was a hard time for

me, I used to think that suicides were a very rare event, but after attending high school and losing

people I loved I realized it was a very real thing, that here in Utah especially is a problem. I

already knew that Utah was one of the most "depressed" states and that we had a very high

suicide rate compared to other places. Reading through the websites you provided, I felt as

though I already knew a lot of the information and statistics. But there was one statistic I

stumbled upon, that no other student has talked about that made it even more real for me. On the

Suicide Prevention Coalition Plan (Which I am absolutely in love with) on page nine, they state,

"Utah's youth suicide rate has been consistently higher than the national rate for more than a

decade". The keyword that stunned me there was "youth". So many young people are being

affected by factors such as depression, anxiety, bullying, social media, etc., and it's causing them

to lose the rest of their lives. Seeing my friends who were 16 and 17 end their lives because of

depression is a terrible thing to see. My friends and all the other young people who have suicidal

thoughts need to know all of their great potential and how much more life they have to live. I
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will never be able to understand their emotions or how heavy their feelings truly are but

everybody can agree that no matter how hard things might have been for them there is light and

happiness not too far away. After learning about that statistic it makes me worry a lot for people

in high school now, here in Utah. Utah is a beautiful place but there is a lot of expectations

people feel like they need to meet, and when they don't that's what leads them down the dark

hole.

I think the information in the textbook on the topic matches up with the statistics from the

websites very well. With information such as, "A recent study found that adolescents who were

isolated from their peers and whose caregivers emotionally neglected them were at significant

risk for developing depression" (Page 302). This I connect with strongly because both of my

friends who I lost were almost straying away from their family's. They didn't have the same

beliefs as their parents and because of this, they would tell me they didn't feel loved or accepted

by others. In response to these emotions, they would further separate themselves from other

people, isolating themselves. On the same page in the textbook, they discuss how suicide isn't

prevalent in early childhood years but if factors begin to affect the person suicidal behavior

becomes more and more intense and they grow up in their adulthood, Constantly escalating. I

think it's easy to see why that is, life gets harder and more stuff gets thrown on top of people's

shoulders making it harder to breathe and see the other side if you've already fallen in the hole.

Another good example of how the textbook connects with the website's information is on page

343 where they discuss how transgender youth have higher rates of depression and suicide

attempts than nontransgender youth. This also totally ties into how youth want to be accepted for

who they are, and when they aren't meeting an expectation it really affects them. We need to be

accepting and understanding towards other people, we can never tell how much they may be
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going through.

I believe Utah has a higher rate than the national average because of the expectations

most people have here. As I discussed in the other paragraphs when people don't feel accepted

here it really affects them because so many people will judge them. Many of my friends would

tell me they felt like everybody was extremely judgemental, close-minded, and unwilling to

understand simply dismiss. I feel like a lot of it could be differences in beliefs and lifestyle.

Being different here in Utah most people have told me isn't pleasant. I absolutely love the

prevention plan and think it is such an amazing thing. I didn't know something like that was out

there and knowing there are people trying their hardest to make a change really makes me happy.

The safeUT app I am also very fond of I have had many of my friends download it and use it and

they said they used it a lot and enjoyed it. It really helped them they would say. I do think that

the prevention plan's ideas will definitely work. The more we implement these protective plans

(which I am most appealed to) the more change I think we will be seeing here shortly. Help

needs to always be easily accessible for anybody struggling and they are trying their best to make

it happen. I think anyone would agree that this information is useful for Utah because we have

been struggling with this for quite some time now, change needs to happen soon. The more

people know about this the more rapidly the change will happen. I don't think the prevention plan

is very well known here in Utah but I do think the safeUT app is being shown in all schools and

colleges very effectively and I deeply appreciate that, that's awesome. The more we get it out

there the safer we can keep those struggling. I would just say to these company's market as much

as you can and obviously (I'm sure they already know) get in every single school in Utah. Make

it as accessible as possible. I will use what I've learned to definitely reflect on my experiences

but to also inform more people of the prevention plan. I myself didn't know about and if I want
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to help make the change I have to spread the word. Utah needs to change its statistics and it

needs to do so quickly. I hope change happens soon, all of those beautiful people who are

struggling deserve their lives and they need to know that.