"Out of the Darkness" walk for suicide prevention goes virtual

Kerry Harvey from the Foundation for Suicide Prevention joins us to discuss the upcoming "Out of the Darkness" walk which has gone virtual this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic

C1 september is suicide prevention month and here in st.

Joseph.

Organizers host the out of the darkness walk.

It's to highlight suicide prevention.

For 2020, like many other walks, the buchanan county area for suicide prevention is taking this further >> hi carey.

>> thanks for being with us.

Tell us about the lock in and how to support those who struggle with family members who dealt with suicide in any capacity.

>> our lock in is interesting.

It will be virtual because of covid.

It's on sunday the 27th at 2 o'clock.

You will be able to live stream it if you go to the buchanan county missouri area american foundation for suicide prevention page on facebook.

You can also live stream on youtube at the greater kansas city afsp together to fight suicide page.

We will have our ceremony like we usually do that we were in person.

We have a speaker.

And we will just be talking about ways to help prevent suicide.

>> who is your speaker this year?

Our speaker is jennifer turner.

She currently lives in california but grew up in st.

Joseph.

Her son grew up here and she lost him a year ago.

She will speak about how it affected her family.

She has a great video.

She started making alex rocks.

She started painting rocks to help deal with her grief and leaves them in places, people find them and go to a facebook page and talk, tell where they found, they have been found all over the world.

People are taking them and putting them to show there's hope.

It has the suicide prevention hot line number and just a way to help her and others.

>> that's wonderful.

Carrie, i know this month and in 2020, a lot of us are concerned with loved ones that struggle with depression and anxiety.

It's different because of covid this year.

What kind of prevention method have you talked about as far as getting people out of isolation during this time of covid.

We need to check on our family members constantly, trying to get active, get enough sleep and just staying connected with each other.

It's the suicide rate has basically gone up.

This began since the quarantine and people not being able to get out.

We found that suicide rates have risen.

It's more important now than ever to check on the loved ones.

>> carrie, thanks for being with us.

We definitely will go to the link and sent you guys in the virtual walk.

If people want to get involved, i'm sure they can find you on facebook as well.

They can.

Thank you