Santa Barbara’s Response to Rise in Suicide Rate
updated: Feb 18, 2010, 2:31 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

For the next three days, Santa Barbara's Victoria Hall is the site of an unprecedented community training in response to the dramatic increase in suicide in Santa Barbara County in the past three years. According to Sheriff Bill Brown, Santa Barbara County saw 28 suicides in 2007, 34 in 2008 and 60 in 2009.

Local organizations including the Glendon Association, Hospice and the Santa Barbara School District have been addressing this issue, and in November 2009, a Community Based Trauma Response Network was founded. This intensive training is an outgrowth of that network.

Leading the training is the internationally renowned expert on community-based trauma treatment and prevention, Dr. Robert Macy. Dr. Macy, who just returned from Haiti, is Founder and Director of the International Center for Disaster Resilience in Boston, as well as a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Harvard Medical School.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Macy noted the need to build networks with humility, science, and intuitive hearts, and stated emphatically, "We're not going to let our kids kill themselves."

The 145 participants in the intensive training focused on training Post-Traumatic Stress Management and Psychological First Aid include individuals from some 40 organizations representing the education community, county/state/city government, law enforcement, faith-based groups, health facilities and several non-profit groups.

Suicide has been called "a permanent solution to a temporary problem." This training will assist participants to become a local team empowered with skills in identification, intervention and suicide prevention to benefit individuals and their families throughout our community.

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