By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Suicide Prevention Task Force of the Central Kansas Partnership, based in Great Bend, held a poster contest this past winter to raise awareness in reaching out for help. The contest was open to all middle and high school students in Barton County. The winners were publicly announced last week.
Holly
Bowyer, with the Center for Counseling and Consultation, says there was a
strong need to create more awareness about suicide prevention over the last
year.
"With COVID-19 and a lot of the events getting cancelled, there was an increase for teenagers and youth coming in for crisis," said Bowyer. "The schools were seeing an increase. A lot of agencies were seeing youth struggling. We came together as a task force and asked 'What can we do?'"
The top three posters were selected from 13 entries. Winners included
Elydia Harr, Georgia Parks and Karlee Dougherty. Posters had to include this
year’s theme of “Your story is not over,” national suicide hotline, Kansas suicide
prevention text line and the “You are not alone” phrase.
Bowyer says most of the suicide rate numbers are delayed by a year, but there
has been more reports of children acting out during the pandemic.
"Since I work at the mental health center, and have community partners that work with youth, we have seen a huge increase in kids acting out, suicide attempts, coming in for crisis and reaching out," said Bowyer.
The Center’s crisis hotline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at
620-792-2544. Bowyer reminds everyone if you see or hear anything always say
something. Studies show that talking about suicide decreases the chances of
someone wanting to commit suicide if they are talked to.