Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
From 2012--
Middle Aged White Males Drive Up Suicide Rate In Johnson County
KCUR’s Susan Wilson talked to therapist Rennie Shuler-McKinney. Rennie has worked at Shawnee Mission Medical Center in the behavioral health program for the past 25 years. They talked about warning signs, area resources and possible reasons for the increase.
Interview Highlights
“You know we’re still in the middle of this economic crisis and my belief is that, and what I hear from our patients, those men who have made a serious attempt at their life, they’re struggling with that sense of failure. They’ve been fairly successful in running a household, maintaining a job, providing for their families. And with numerous layoffs throughout the community, men are finding themselves, initially after the layoff they’re energized to go out and find a new job, and they’re working maybe off a severance package and they have some money or maybe they’re tapping into their retirement. But then as time goes along, and the jobs aren’t out there, they’re finding themselves in a huge financial crisis. And for the first time in their life they’re facing a situation where they’re no longer feeling that they’re the main provider for their family.”
“They’ve (men) been able to provide for a very nice home and a nice lifestyle and when they’re not able to provide that anymore and they’re having to sell material items just to get by month to month. I think that’s playing a larger impact on those individuals.”
“In our assessment and intake center here at the hospital, we average over 350 calls every month. And many of those are from loved ones that are concerned because the person that’s experiencing the difficulties often don’t know where to reach, or to embarrassed to reach out and ask for help. SO often the spouse is the one that’s making that initial phone to call to say, ‘Can you help me? Here are some things I’m seeing, what do you think I might need to do next?’”
“Expectations in our community is that we do more with less in pretty much every organization, and with those pressures we’re seeing more and more men come in and ask for help.”
--more--
http://kcur.org/post/middle-aged-white-males-drive-suicide-rate-johnson-county#stream/0
KCUR’s Susan Wilson talked to therapist Rennie Shuler-McKinney. Rennie has worked at Shawnee Mission Medical Center in the behavioral health program for the past 25 years. They talked about warning signs, area resources and possible reasons for the increase.
Interview Highlights
“You know we’re still in the middle of this economic crisis and my belief is that, and what I hear from our patients, those men who have made a serious attempt at their life, they’re struggling with that sense of failure. They’ve been fairly successful in running a household, maintaining a job, providing for their families. And with numerous layoffs throughout the community, men are finding themselves, initially after the layoff they’re energized to go out and find a new job, and they’re working maybe off a severance package and they have some money or maybe they’re tapping into their retirement. But then as time goes along, and the jobs aren’t out there, they’re finding themselves in a huge financial crisis. And for the first time in their life they’re facing a situation where they’re no longer feeling that they’re the main provider for their family.”
“They’ve (men) been able to provide for a very nice home and a nice lifestyle and when they’re not able to provide that anymore and they’re having to sell material items just to get by month to month. I think that’s playing a larger impact on those individuals.”
“In our assessment and intake center here at the hospital, we average over 350 calls every month. And many of those are from loved ones that are concerned because the person that’s experiencing the difficulties often don’t know where to reach, or to embarrassed to reach out and ask for help. SO often the spouse is the one that’s making that initial phone to call to say, ‘Can you help me? Here are some things I’m seeing, what do you think I might need to do next?’”
“Expectations in our community is that we do more with less in pretty much every organization, and with those pressures we’re seeing more and more men come in and ask for help.”
--more--
http://kcur.org/post/middle-aged-white-males-drive-suicide-rate-johnson-county#stream/0
Johnson County, Kansas, is considered middle- to upper-middle class.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
68 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read