HOME | CONTACT | DONATE | EVENTS | ARE YOU IN CRISIS?

Do we have a ‘suicide’ problem in Rapid City and Pennington County?

It's time to talk about the 'S' word. Over the past ten years the incidence of suicide in Rapid City and Pennington County has continued to grow. It is time for everyone in our community to work together and learn how to help prevent this tragedy from occuring.

Overcome this myth: Know that if you reach out to someone in good faith to help them, you are not liable for what may or may not happen to them because you are covered by the Good Samaritan Law. Everyone has to talk about suicide and should know how to do a suicide intervention. An intervention is not counseling and by learning how to intervene on someone whose thoughts of suicide are an imminent risk, you are not providing ongoing therapy. You are intervening on someone's potential actions before they harm themselves and ensuring that they are safe until they do receive mental health treatment of counseling and therapy.

Suicide is Everyone’s Loss; "THEREFORE “Suicide Prevention is Everyone's Business. While it may be difficult to talk about 'suicide', it cannot remain a taboo subject. We must remain connected to everyone and help each other, even when they are suicidal.

The Rapid City community was selected to work with the South Dakota Division of Mental Health as a project site for the South Dakota Community Partnership for Suicide Prevention. Service providers of all types have come together to work on how to prevent the incidence of suicide through education, training, awareness, and the enhancement of our community's mental health care referral system. Those service providers, concerned citizens, and youth across the community have come together to form the Rapid City Suicide Prevention Taskforce. While working on the issues that remain in the community, the taskforce is sponsoring a variety of trainings that are currently being provided to the community free of charge though the grant from the South Dakota Division of Mental Health. Professional educational and training programs are offered to schools, organizations, and other interested groups. Schools in the Rapid City and surrounding area will select a school suicide prevention curriculum to implement. More advanced training in crisis intervention is offered to professional groups such as school counselors, law enforcement officers, and mental health providers through workshops, in-services, and consultation. Service providers and the general public can select which types of suicide awareness and intervention trainings that they wish to learn more about. A select number of key community members will also be trained to provide ongoing training to the community as certified trainers of various evidence-based suicide prevention and intervention models. This will build our community's capacity to support ongoing suicide prevention activities into the future.

If you find yourself in a situation where someone is having thoughts of suicide or actively suicidal with a plan to hurt themselves, learn what you can do to help that person and where people can go to get help. If you don't know what to say or what to do, here is how to learn what to do. Click here to learn more.

Taskforce meetings are held every third Tuesday of each month from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Regional Behavioral Health Center's Family Learning Center at 915 Mountain View Road, Rapid City, SD 57702. For more information on the taskforce and its meetings, contact Stephanie Schweitzer Dixon at (605) 348-6692 or at inquiries@frontporchcoalition.org.