Suicide social movements highlight one of the most uncomfortable and perplexing questions about human behavior: why do people commit suicide? How can we prevent a suicide from happening? How can we end this stigma on how people look at suicide? Recently, many things are being done to answer these questions nationwide. Schools, Non- profit’s and finally community organizations are the main resources on doing this.
Bring Change to Minds is one of many social movements at a school. It gives teens a platform to share their voices and raise awareness around mental health. Their main goal is to “empower students to educate one another, and their communities, and to create a culture of peer support within their schools and finally help fight the stigma around mental illness” (Bring Change to Minds). From 2015-2017, Bring Change to Mind funded a social movement for its high-school club program to share what they stood for, which had over 700 diverse high-school students attend. After, this movement the club is now sponsored and has adapted to more people every day joining their club and speaking about their movement.
Although, their club differs from many anti stigma programs, or social movements which have the educational goal of enhancing students’ knowledge of mental health conditions. Their guiding principles do not involve a fully structured curriculum; rather, they provide a range of suggested activities to encourage student-initiated discussion, involvement, contact with people with mental illness, and actions designed to reduce stigma, reduce social distance, and enhance acceptance. Bring Change to Minds school club and their social movement has now dramatically expanded to schools all over.
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Not only are schools joining this social movement even non-profit organizations are adding onto this. For example, Kid In The Corner is a non-profit organization that “reaches out to the kid in the corner, whomever that may be, so that they feel supported by and connected to their community, as well as to start conversations about mental illness and inspire kids to build peer connections through education, awareness and simple acts of kindness” (Kid in the Corner). They add to this social movement everyday by accomplishing a three-pronged approach which is: educate and spread awareness, promote kindness and community connectedness, finally connect community with mental health resources.
Finally, community organizations play a vital role in this growing social movement. Many are offering funding opportunities, training, and an abundance of resources. Faith communities are a growing setting for suicide prevention. They’re providing opportunities for developing positive relationships with others and becoming an important source to reach out too during difficult times. Faith communities are using a three step strategy to add onto this social movement. For example, “Promote emotional well-being and connectedness among members of a faith community Identify people who may be at risk for suicide and assist them in getting help Be prepared to respond to a suicide death and provide support to the survivors” (Suicide Prevention Resource).
In conclusion, social movements are emerging, and gaining momentum everyday to become bigger. As the movement has progressed there has been a increase in self-reflection especially around the stigma of suicide, there has also been a change in language people are starting to shift with implementation of safe and effective messaging. Finally also policies have changed for the better. For example, its been changed on how people respond a crisis. Now as time goes on this movement will engage a wider circle and reach out to more people.
