Suicide Prevention Newsletter
Community Based Media Project 

Hello,

I am thrilled and honored to be working in Miles City and collaborating with our partners here on this very important and sensitive subject.

My background is in education, visual arts and filmmaking. Here in California, where I live when I’m not in Montana, I am known for using my skills and training in community settings to tell the stories of the people I am working with. These projects have taken various forms including visual art exhibitions, short documentaries, short and feature length fictional films, and evenings of poetry and performance. I will be bringing these processes to Miles City in January to explore the urgent issue of teen suicide and depression in eastern Montana. As a community we will explore this issue, tell our stories, share our perspectives and decide as a group how we want to express our findings.

I am very excited to begin this journey with your community and trust that we as a team will indeed make positive steps forward in preventing suicide.

The next meeting for the Community Based Media Project will be held October 26th, 6:00 PM at the GHEF office (615 Main Street, next to U.S. Bank.) The meeting is open to the general public, so don't forget to mark your calendar! 

Your opinions and input are needed and appreciated!

The Billings Gazette wrote an article about the CBMP! Reprinted with permission:

By CINDY UKEN Of The Gazette Staff

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 

MILES CITY — A San Francisco-based independent film writer, producer and director is making suicide in Eastern Montana the subject of a 20-minute short film that is expected to premiere in March.

The film, targeted toward youth, will feature interviews that are already under way with residents whose lives have been affected by suicide. 

“I’m using this film to activate change,” producer Lise Swenson said.

Swenson teaches film at San Francisco City College and works for the Miles City-based Global Health Equity Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 that seeks to address challenges faced by health and mental health care providers in rural areas. The foundation serves as a catalyst for community awareness, communication and involvement. Several community forums have already been held to facilitate discussion.

Suicide has ravaged Eastern Montana, an area known for its sparse population, extreme climate range, and “cowboy-up” mentality and culture, said Kasey Stanton, 21, from Miles City. He is studying psychology at Montana State University Billings and received an internship with the Global Health Equity Foundation, where his primary role was to research and collect data on suicide, depression and the stigma associated with mental illness in Eastern Montana.

Several factors exacerbate the suicide rate in this corner of the state, including a lack of mental health awareness, an inadequate availability of mental health services and social isolation, according to Stanton’s research.

Between 2000 and 2006, the suicide rate in five counties in Eastern Montana — Custer, Fallon, Powder River, Sheridan and Roosevelt — ranked nationally at or above the 80th percentile.

At least five children from Poplar Middle School on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes, killed themselves in 2009. Even more tried. During the 2010-2011 school year, two more high school students in the same area committed suicide.

“It is evident suicide has persisted as a formidable, although often covert and unspoken issue in the state of Montana,” Stanton said.

There are myriad reasons for the high incidence, Stanton said. But one reason he highlights is that in Montana, firearms are readily available. Of all suicides committed in the state, 66 percent are completed with a firearm compared with 50 percent nationwide. Thirteen percent of those committing suicide hanged themselves, and 10 percent used drugs.

It is critical, however, Stanton said, to realize there is rarely a single factor that causes a suicide but rather a culmination of variables that triggers a downward spiral in an individual’s mental health.

To date, various individuals and organizations have tried to find a solution to help curb the numbers of suicides but none have made an impact, Stanton said. The goal of the community forums, ongoing discussions and ultimately the film is to bring a greater awareness, understanding and knowledge of mental health.