One headline read “Suicide Prevention Employee Tells Woman To Jump Off Bridge.” Another read “Suicide Prevention Staff Member Tells Caller To Just Kill Himself Because She’s Tired.”
Wyoming's suicide rate ranks in the top three as the highest in the nation. Mental health issues are at an all-time high, and the system is starting to crack (no pun intended) under the pressure.
The Cheyenne Police Department and Laramie County Sheriff's Office are both unprepared and ill-equipped to handle those with mental health issues, instead treating addicts, alcoholics and others using a one-size-fits-all without compassion or empathy. Even some domestic abuse victims are being overlooked because they are viewed as just other addicts and alcoholics.
Without due diligence on the part of the responders who come across those in need of mental health support or protection from their abusers, too many fall through the cracks or are failed by the system. It's a no-brainer to understand that many addicts and alcoholics are victims of domestic abuse.
It's not just the responders' part in the system that is at the breaking point, but also within the mental health professionals community who are understaffed and overworked, and even sometimes not completely trained or properly educated to deal with certain situations or special circumstances.
Becoming a responder or a mental health professional, for many, is about wanting to help or do good. But it's more than that. It’s more than just having empathy or compassion. It’s the willingness to help an individual work through their demons, sometimes at a cost.
Too many go into the mental health professional field with good intentions, not understanding the complexities of the system or the laws in place. Mental health should not be a political or religious issue, but, for too many, it is. But why?
Only recently has mental health become a topic that more are willing to discuss openly. Mental health is just as important an issue as guns, abortion, or other hot topic issues because it's one issue that at one point touches all of us in our lifetimes.
Shut up and quit calling? So it seems.
