How to Help Loved Ones Who May Be Struggling
After the news that both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain died as a result of suicide, and the CDC released a study finding suicide rates have risen in every state over the past twenty years, Mary Buser, clinical social worker, assistant unit chief in the Mental Health Department on Rikers Island (1995 to 2000), co-founder of the Samaritans of New York suicide prevention hotline, and author of Lockdown on Rikers: Shocking Stories of Abuse and Injustice at New York's Notorious Jail (St. Martin's Press, 2015), and Jennifer Michael Hecht, poet, historian, and the author of Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It (Yale University Press, 2013), talk about what people can do to help a loved one they know is struggling with depression.
"You are needed way more than you realize," says @Freudeinstein on @BrianLehrer. @WNYC. "And if you have kids under 18 in the house, they need you so badly. It doesn't matter how terrible a father you may think you are. None of that matters. It matters that you stay for them."
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) June 8, 2018
If you feel that you need to speak to someone confidentially, The Samaritans offers a 24-hour emotional support and crisis response hotline: 212-673-3000
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 8, 2018
