Susan Wild tours Lehigh Heavy Forge while visiting area businesses in June of 2021. Congresswoman Wild has turned personal tragedy into motivation to help others who may be suffering in the community who do not have the same resources,” he added. “When people speak out, especially people in power, others in mourning feel less alone, more seen. Paul Nestadt, a practicing psychiatrist and the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Anxiety Disorders Clinic, said “it is both brave and important for lawmakers to share their personal experiences with mental health and suicide.” He participated in a suicide prevention roundtable Wild led in 2019. “I had a lot of people reaching out and saying, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so glad you stepped up to talk about it, because this happened to my family.’ When that happens, it sort of really propels you, it made me realize that this wasn’t just my own solitary experience, but one that I’d been given this public forum, and I needed to do something about it,” Wild said.ĭr. She and other lawmakers have pressed the video-sharing platform YouTube to take more suicide prevention measures. Wild introduced related legislation and participated in lawmaker roundtables to raise awareness.

Former NFL player Fred Stokes, who had contemplated it himself in the past, reached out, and the pair began working on suicide-prevention initiatives. Constituents shared how suicide touched their own families. A man from Iowa called to say it had prompted him to get help. On the month marker of Acker’s death, Wild delivered a emotion-filled speech on the House floor urging anyone else considering suicide to seek mental health treatment. Among young people aged 1o to 24, for example, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and LGBTQ+ youth consider and attempt suicide at rates higher rates than heterosexual youth, according to the Trevor Project, an organization providing suicide-prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth. The risk is high in other demographics as well.

White men accounted for nearly 70 percent of all suicide deaths, and the highest suicide rate was among middle-aged White men, according to government data analyzed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In 2019, more than 47,000 Americans died by suicide, making it the 10th leading cause of death.

Susan wild