GOSHEN – Orange County officials presented startling figures concerning the number of school children and military veterans who take their own lives and used that as a backdrop to announce – Friends Help Friends – a new smart phone suicide prevention app.
The free app for Droid and I-phones may be downloaded from the county website or for free from the App Store.
It provides volumes of information about what to look for in a person who may be depressed and contemplating taking their own life.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus thought of the app when his niece brought up a concern and talked to her family members.
“I think one of my friends is contemplating suicide, but I don’t know if he is really is or not. Read some of these text messages,” she told her family. The messages were among kids where he talked of giving away his belongings and that they would never see him again. She turned to Neuhaus and asked him what she should do. “I honestly didn’t know,” he told her.
Neuhaus got the idea for the app from Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, who launched the similar program last year.
Darcie Miller, the county’s social services and mental health commissioner and Christian Farrell, the county’s veterans’ services director, said the problem is serious. Miller said 90 percent of male victims have a mental illness.
Neuhaus noted that nationwide, the numbers of victims who are veterans is significantly higher than the instances among the general population.
According to the Center for Disease Control, for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death. It results in approximately 4600 lives lost each year, nationwide.
