After the suicide of a Morristown High School freshman in 2012, town resident Betsy Harvin was curious about what resources were available to help people shake suicidal feelings.
It took 45 minutes of calling hospitals, agencies and suicide hotlines to get an actual person on the phone, she said.
On Friday, Harvin became more pro-active. Her nonprofit, Spare Capacity Play, underwrote Send Silence Packing, a daylong suicide awareness presentation on the Morristown Green by Active Minds, a Washington DC-based nonprofit.
Some 1,100 backpacks were strewn across the Green to symbolize the estimated number of college students who take their own lives annually.Tragic stories were attached to some of the backpacks. Harvin suspected they would resonate with people from all walks of life.
Please click icon below for captions.
She remembered wanting to “punish” her parents as a teenager.
“I sat in my bedroom and thought, ‘I’m going to kill myself,’ and I went through all the different ways. Then they called me to dinner, and I forgot about it,” Harvin said.
Going through a divorce years later, she grew despondent and struggled to carry on. Luckily, she recounted, she had a support network of friends and professionals to help her snap the funk.
“I bet there are plenty of other people out there who feel that way,” Harvin said.
To help them, a number of organizations distributed information on the Green. The Mental Health Association of Morris County is a starting place to find resources: 973-334-3496. Active Minds also promoted the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 1-800-273-TALK.
Young bands from the Original Music School were scheduled to perform on the Green at 5 pm on Friday, followed by a prayer service at 6 pm at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer on South Street.
For a few moments on Friday morning, it looked like Send Silence Packing might be sent packing.
Trustees of the Green expressed support for the cause, but objected to placement of backpacks on shrubs and branches and along sidewalks. They cited concerns about damage to the vegetation, and the potential for visitors to trip over the backpacks.
“It was a miscommunication,” said Madine Despeine of the county Mental Health Association, as volunteers re-arranged the packs.
other resources, if you are thinking of hurting yourself or are afraid a friend or family member is thinking of hurting him or herself:
Crisis Hotline at Morristown: well, that didn’t work. I just called it to confirm what I think I learned yesterday….and nobody picked up. 10 rings. Well, here’s the number in case all else fails:
973-540-0100.
NJ Hopeline: there we go. someone picked up after 2 rings. Someone live to talk to 24/7.
855-654-6735
really, the beauty is the National Suicide Prevention Hotline (NSPH) Kevin mentioned above. 800-273-8255. You don’t get a real person right away, but you get one quickly. They have coordinated with suicide hotlines all over the country, and they know, as far as I can tell, when a suicide line is staffed. I called a few other numbers I was given yesterday, but they have hours, or kept asking me to hold, so I’m not including them here. When I called NSPH at 9:45am Saturday to after a minute I was talking to a counselor in Union.
The Mental Health Association of Morris County has all sorts of good resources, but not the budget to promote them. If you’re not in immediate suicide crisis, call them for hmmmm pretty much any mental health issue you or a loved one has, and they’ll be able to help or direct you. If you want to make a donation, send it to them for Madine to allocate. Every once in a while I stumble on someone who just gets it, and she is one.
thanks, Kevin! I thought I loved the Morristown Green trustees, but I wanted to give that one a good smack with his patronizing “My Dears” and long winded lectures with his peculiar sense of noblesse oblige. He was right, actually, but his delivery only served to provoke an old dame who had laid out $10,000 for the event and been up since 5 that morning taping flyers around the high school, her target market for the event. The small, lightweight, empty backpacks hanging on limbs caught people’s attention and brought them in. His most telling remark: “It’s already so….so….” wave of the hand. The distasteful public display of talk about suicide…. Oh. My dear. My dear.