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Suicide prevention expert honored
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| Community Services Board Vice Chairwoman Mary Daggett presents a certificate of recognition to the CSBŐs 2009 honoree, Gary Spielman, Wednesday evening at KozelŐs Restaurant. (John Mason/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers) |
By John Mason
GHENT — “Suicide is not inevitable,” Gary Spielman of Kinderhook told a gathering of mental health professionals at the annual dinner meeting of the Columbia County Community Services Board Wednesday. Spielman, the board’s 2009 honoree, knows whereof he speaks: New York’s Suicide Prevention Strategy, of which he was the principal architect, serves as a model for other states.
The ninth annual dinner meeting took place at Kozel’s Restaurant.
The evening’s other main speaker, County Mental Health Director Michael O’Leary, chose to focus on “the aesthetics of health care,” and particularly on the healing and transformative effects of a clean, state-of-the-art health facility like the Health/Mental Health Building at 325 Columbia St.
Losing someone through suicide is a terrible loss, but is compounded by the stigmas and judgments that accompany it, Spielman said.
“We owe it to them to recognize their lives by how they lived, not how they died,” he said. “The only thing that made me an expert on suicide was to lose a loved one by suicide. To figure out how to make a better world out of the tragedy.”
John Belucci, director of planning for the New York State Bridge Authority, was one of a number of speakers praising Spielman prior to his speech. Belucci told how Spielman had been called in out of retirement to do a suicide prevention program for five state bridges.
Spielman, he said, was able to take into account the concerns of people dealing with the issue and the safety concerns of the Bridge Authority, and help the authority come up with a plan within six weeks that verifiably saved lives within the next six months.
There were three main components of the plan, Spielman told the Register-Star. The first involved adapting the telephone lifeline plan that had proved successful on the Mid-Hudson Bridge to the other four bridges as well.
Over 22 years, there were 60 successful rescues on the Mid-Hudson, thanks in large part to phones on the bridge that link it to the Dutchess County Mental Health Agency.
Due to the development of cell phone technology, a state-of-the-art phone system now connects distraught people on all five bridges to a trained mental health professional.
“We find that it [often] requires an expert to dissuade someone who’s contemplating suicide from following through,” Spielman said. “Most are persuadable, not committed.”
The other components are working with mental health agencies to publicize the signs of troubled individuals, and letting people know what to do if someone is showing suicidal signs; and training the personnel on the bridges about how to deal with distraught persons.
“Our goal is to get them to use the services before they get to the bridge,” he said. A national suicide hotline is available at 1-800-273-8255.
Spielman told the audience there were 20 suicides in Columbia County last year, three times the usual figure. He’s on a task force that is confronting this problem.
While the suicide rate is usually four-to-one males to females, last year eight females, 40 percent took their lives, he told the Register-Star.
“There are treatments available,” he said. “It’s not inevitable.”
Doctors are being educated, he said, to look for signs of depression.
Spielman next touched on President Obama’s State of the Union Address, and the problems of greed, waste, hoodwinking that have led us into an economic morass.
A few years ago, he said, a Harvard poll showed 65 percent of the business students wanted to go to Wall Street and become millionaires within five years.
“That doesn’t look so good anymore,” he said, suggesting that young people should move toward careers in the social services. “What matters is not what you have in the bank account, but what you do for your fellow man.”
In his annual address, O’Leary began by reviewing how the Department of Human Services “has continued to provide state-wide leadership in ‘people first,’ ‘no silo’ planning.” The department has been involved in a joint planning group that’s bringing the three state offices of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services together.
O’Leary also talked about the decision, several years ago, to relocate the Human Services departments to the new building at 325 Columbia St., and he thanked the Board of Supervisors for reaffirming that commitment in the recently-announced plan to keep Health and Mental Health at that building.
“What impact does our physical environment have on our emotional health?” he asked. “What is your emotional state when a waiting room clangs with noise and turmoil? How is the sense of safety and stability impacted by the touch of a cold metal chair in a waiting room? The aesthetics of health are intuitively known though rarely acknowledged. We communicate through our senses. We can convey a welcoming sense, reassurance of safety, order and calmness. We can signal professionalism and skill. We can engender confidence.
“Likewise by the choices we make, we can convey distrust, fear, disrespect, annoyance and disregard to the people we otherwise seek to help,” he said. “The new Human Services building literally replaced a junk yard, symbolic of a new and transformative understanding of mental illness as a treatable condition that this community would no longer relegate to second-class status. I thank the Board for reaffirming that commitment.”
The gathering also honored two retiring employees. Karen Sapcoe served in many capacities over 32 years, including as a member of the Developmental Disabilities Subcommittee, and was praised for her “intelligence and work ethic.”
Joan Bloomberg retired from her position as clinical director after 25 years; O’Leary called her “an outstanding community leader.”
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
The ninth annual dinner meeting took place at Kozel’s Restaurant.
The evening’s other main speaker, County Mental Health Director Michael O’Leary, chose to focus on “the aesthetics of health care,” and particularly on the healing and transformative effects of a clean, state-of-the-art health facility like the Health/Mental Health Building at 325 Columbia St.
Losing someone through suicide is a terrible loss, but is compounded by the stigmas and judgments that accompany it, Spielman said.
“We owe it to them to recognize their lives by how they lived, not how they died,” he said. “The only thing that made me an expert on suicide was to lose a loved one by suicide. To figure out how to make a better world out of the tragedy.”
John Belucci, director of planning for the New York State Bridge Authority, was one of a number of speakers praising Spielman prior to his speech. Belucci told how Spielman had been called in out of retirement to do a suicide prevention program for five state bridges.
Spielman, he said, was able to take into account the concerns of people dealing with the issue and the safety concerns of the Bridge Authority, and help the authority come up with a plan within six weeks that verifiably saved lives within the next six months.
There were three main components of the plan, Spielman told the Register-Star. The first involved adapting the telephone lifeline plan that had proved successful on the Mid-Hudson Bridge to the other four bridges as well.
Over 22 years, there were 60 successful rescues on the Mid-Hudson, thanks in large part to phones on the bridge that link it to the Dutchess County Mental Health Agency.
Due to the development of cell phone technology, a state-of-the-art phone system now connects distraught people on all five bridges to a trained mental health professional.
“We find that it [often] requires an expert to dissuade someone who’s contemplating suicide from following through,” Spielman said. “Most are persuadable, not committed.”
The other components are working with mental health agencies to publicize the signs of troubled individuals, and letting people know what to do if someone is showing suicidal signs; and training the personnel on the bridges about how to deal with distraught persons.
“Our goal is to get them to use the services before they get to the bridge,” he said. A national suicide hotline is available at 1-800-273-8255.
Spielman told the audience there were 20 suicides in Columbia County last year, three times the usual figure. He’s on a task force that is confronting this problem.
While the suicide rate is usually four-to-one males to females, last year eight females, 40 percent took their lives, he told the Register-Star.
“There are treatments available,” he said. “It’s not inevitable.”
Doctors are being educated, he said, to look for signs of depression.
Spielman next touched on President Obama’s State of the Union Address, and the problems of greed, waste, hoodwinking that have led us into an economic morass.
A few years ago, he said, a Harvard poll showed 65 percent of the business students wanted to go to Wall Street and become millionaires within five years.
“That doesn’t look so good anymore,” he said, suggesting that young people should move toward careers in the social services. “What matters is not what you have in the bank account, but what you do for your fellow man.”
In his annual address, O’Leary began by reviewing how the Department of Human Services “has continued to provide state-wide leadership in ‘people first,’ ‘no silo’ planning.” The department has been involved in a joint planning group that’s bringing the three state offices of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services together.
O’Leary also talked about the decision, several years ago, to relocate the Human Services departments to the new building at 325 Columbia St., and he thanked the Board of Supervisors for reaffirming that commitment in the recently-announced plan to keep Health and Mental Health at that building.
“What impact does our physical environment have on our emotional health?” he asked. “What is your emotional state when a waiting room clangs with noise and turmoil? How is the sense of safety and stability impacted by the touch of a cold metal chair in a waiting room? The aesthetics of health are intuitively known though rarely acknowledged. We communicate through our senses. We can convey a welcoming sense, reassurance of safety, order and calmness. We can signal professionalism and skill. We can engender confidence.
“Likewise by the choices we make, we can convey distrust, fear, disrespect, annoyance and disregard to the people we otherwise seek to help,” he said. “The new Human Services building literally replaced a junk yard, symbolic of a new and transformative understanding of mental illness as a treatable condition that this community would no longer relegate to second-class status. I thank the Board for reaffirming that commitment.”
The gathering also honored two retiring employees. Karen Sapcoe served in many capacities over 32 years, including as a member of the Developmental Disabilities Subcommittee, and was praised for her “intelligence and work ethic.”
Joan Bloomberg retired from her position as clinical director after 25 years; O’Leary called her “an outstanding community leader.”
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
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