Texas Suicide Prevention Conference in San Marcos

Posted by Julie Hersh on 21 June 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: Mental Health America, Thomas Joiner, suicide prevention, Tom Eillis

Last Thursday I traveled to San Marcos with good friend Jane LeVieux who is a long term family friend, who I've reconnected with in the last year because of our intense interest in mental health. Jane is a psychiatric nurse and consult liason for Children's Medical. When I say long-term, I mean it. in the summer of 1967, my parents asked her parents if we (meaning all 5 of us kids and my parents - 7 total to be combined with the 7 people in the LeVieux family), could move in with them for a couple of weeks because the house we were building in Annandale, VA was not quite ready. Jane's parent's agreed. 2 weeks expanded into 8 weeks which contain now myth-like, stand-by-me-ish stories which we all exchange. Jane and I drove down to San Marcos for the Texas Suicide Prevention Council event - organized and executed by about 30 different Texas organizations intent on reducing the suicide rate (http://www.texassuicideprevention.org/about.asp). I went, I admit, because I am sort of a Thomas Joiner groupie. His work is some of the best I've seen on suicide - years of research, many books, perhaps the most read being Why People Die by Suicide.

Joiner's relaxed yet well-informed style was worth the drive. So often in psychology the "experts" get to the point where they seem unopen to new ideas, so use to the admiration of their followers that they forget to view their own work with a critical eye. Joiner strikes me as the kind of guy who always sees room for improvement and more information. He talked about his book The Myths of Suicide. His book in process, Lonely at the Top, promises to be as good if not better than his other works. I ordered Myths (not available for sale at the even or on Kindle - so you KNOW I must like this guy). I gave him a copy of Struck by Living and hopefully he'll like the book and give a plug.

Also was very impressed with Tom Ellis, a pscyhologist out of Menninger Clinic. Tom said we met before when I spoke at Menninger. When I charged past him to give a copy of my book to Joiner, Ellis took it in stride. Ellis's presentation dealt with the trends in treating suicidal patients. Considering I've seen a fair amount of these at the American Assn of Suicidology - I can tell you Ellis did a great job. He knows his stuff and has a sense of humor - two qualities essential for this type of presentation. Very strong overview of suicide stats, approaches, views on suicide contracts (get rid of them!) and research on what works and what doesn't. He recommended the following books: Cognition and Suicide:Theory, Research and Therapy (Ellis),Choosing to Live (Ellis,Newman),Cognitvie Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (Linehan), Treating Suicidal Behavior (Joiner, Rudd) and Managing Suicidal Risk (Jobes).

My favorite part of Ellis' speech was his emphasis on asking the hard question of suicidal ideation. He joked about the tendency for these patients to appear at 4:45p on a Friday afternoon, when our tendency is to ask "you're not really suicidal, are you?" The answer to that question often complicates our lives, but it is the one we need to continue to ask.

Really enjoyed listening to both these men - as well Scott Poland from NOVA Sourtheastern University and Alex Crosby from the CDC. Hats off to the Texas Suicide PRevention Council. I'll definitely attend again next year if invited. This was excellent information packaged in a compressed period of time. Well worth the trip.

And the family stories on the roadtrip down with Janie - priceless!

 

Julie