Changing How We Talk About Suicide and Care For Our Friends and Ourselves

Sep 20, 2022

Changing How We Talk About Suicide and Care For Our Friends and Ourselves

with Shelby Rowe

Changing How We Talk About Suicide and Care For Our Friends and Ourselves

Episode Details

How we talk about, approach, and care for suicide is a pretty big deal. Suicide is a tragic and intense topic, and it’s also a very real and human-centered topic. That’s why we want to explore the ways in which we can reframe and change how we address it in a more compassionate sense—and how we, on a person-to-person level, can care for ourselves, friends, and loved ones who might be thinking about or considering suicide. So today, we have the honor of hearing and learning from suicide prevention expert Shelby Rowe. Shelby will walk us through everything we mentioned and she’ll also touch on why the suicide rate is notably higher for different communities of people—specifically BIPOC communities.

Shelby Rowe is an award-winning artist, mother of three sons, suicide attempt survivor, and director of one of the nation’s largest federally funded suicide prevention projects. She is the recipient of the 2021 American Association of Suicidology Transforming Lived Experience Award and the 2016 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year. Ms. Rowe has been a leader in the suicide prevention movement at the local, state, and national levels since 2007.

This episode is a part of our You Are Not a Burden campaign in honor of September being Suicide Prevention Month. You can learn more about the campaign by going to youarenotaburden.com.

Shelby Rowe

“What is it that we're doing to either encourage or promote someone’s purpose? It may be a video game, it may be their pet, [or] whatever they're genuinely excited about. Life is hard enough. Let people be excited about whatever it is.”

Guest Links:

This episode of the TWLOHA podcast was hosted by Chad Moses and produced by Rebecca Ebert. Music assistance was provided by James Likeness and Ben Tichenor.

Topics:

suicide, suicide prevention, mental health, suicide attempt
Never Miss an Episode

Sign up for our newsletter to hear updates from our team and how you can help share the message of hope and help.

Join our list