Written By Laura Yardeni, SL24/Sean’s House Communications and PR Intern
With September wrapped up, so is Suicide Prevention Awareness month. But our mission and education will never stop. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults, with one person taking their life every 40 seconds according to WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
During the month of September, Sean’s House was busier than ever. People of all ages came for help and to show support all throughout the month. In September, we hosted 26 different events with over 750 guests attending. The events allowed us to share our message, resources we provide and have real conversations.
We hosted high school athletes, the UDance executive board, AEPhi, ADPi, new students, college athletes, Goldey Beacom Softball, Honors varsity student athletes, and different members of the community for weekly dinners and other house events.
Members of the UnLocke the Light family spoke about mental health education to over 3,000 youths and adults in three different states. During those speeches our staff shared their vulnerability with personal stories. The speeches brought awareness to all the options available for people who are struggling mentally. We believe the speeches made an impact on many of the attendees.
At Sean’s House we also ran three mindfulness workshops, where we helped individuals to hone in their mental focus and to be in the present moment. Michael, our peer lead, runs the mindfulness sessions every Sunday at 4 pm. Our purpose for these events is to help those who are struggling to appreciate the present moment calm their minds in a group setting. We want all thoughts, good or bad, to be let go during this time. Come reset and find an inner calmness with us next Sunday!
We were also visited 21 days out of the month by PAWS. For those of you who don’t know, we bring in furry faces to Sean’s House to provide comfort for those struggling. PAWS has gained a lot of attraction to the house and has helped many decrease their anxiety.
Our goal for this month was to help those who were struggling to seek help and to bring awareness to the services we provide. With the two year anniversary of Sean’s house being open coming up, we are happy to announce our progress within the last year!
Our daily house visits are up 356% from last year and our peer support sessions are up 439%. To date, in the two years that Sean’s House has been opened, we had over 13,000 visits, over 3,500 peer support sessions and 76 individuals saved from suicidal situations.
We have many more exciting events lined up for the month of October and we welcome you to take a look at our house calendar which can be found on our website and social media pages.