May 2024 Call to Action

The monthly newsletter of the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network (TSPN)

Thank you everyone for your dedication as we continue to work together to eliminate suicide-related thoughts behaviors, deaths, and the stigma surrounding suicide. This month in particular, I have been relayed a number of kind words about the TSPN team's work ethic, kindness, creativity, and passion. It is energizing and humbling to hear these stories, and my honor to work with wonderful staff and partners, thank you. TSPN continues to strengthen and grow, and we are presently fully staffed. Next month's newsletter will officially announce our East Regional Director.

On a programmatic update note, TSPN has been collecting data on agencies interested in starting or continuing Zero Suicide implementation across Tennessee. Now, we are working to tailor a series of information sessions to support and enhance implementation efforts.

Across the seven pillars of Zero Suicide, what successes are you having? What additional support do you need?

To participate in this month's call to action, fill out our survey below to help us determine the topics and subject-matter experts invited to speak on Zero Suicide in the coming months.

Zero Suicide Implementation Survey

I encourage everyone to participate and please share this month's call to action!

Interested, yet unfamiliar with Zero Suicide?

Learn more here: www.tspn.org/zero-suicide-initiative

Interested in joining TSPN's Zero Suicide Task Force list serve?

Contact Lisa Kling, at lkling@tspn.org.

With gratitude,

Anna

In this issue

Meet our new Communications Director

TSPN marketing item updates

Nashville Virtual 5K

and more!

Alisa LaPolt is the new Communications Director for TSPN. She has served the same role for TAADAS for the past four years. Alisa grew up in Greeneville, Tennessee, and earned a degree in communications from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She spent 15 years as a reporter for news outlets including the former Nashville Banner; the Associated Press in Madison, Wisconsin; and Gannett News Service (now the USA Today Network) in Tallahassee, Florida. She shifted to advocacy work in 2003 and opened her own lobbying/public affairs firm in Tallahassee, where she spent 16 years advocating for health and mental health causes. Alisa was named Executive Director of NAMI Florida in 2016. Then, in 2019, she was hired as NAMI Tennessee’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, a role she served through March of this year. Alisa now offers communications, consulting, and life coaching through her Nashville-based company Smart Angel Strategies.

TSPN has received shipments of magnets promoting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, as well as TSPN-branded power banks. These materials are ready for distribution at exhibits, health fairs, and training sessions hosted or supported by TSPN staff and volunteers.

If you have an event comping up and you would like promotional materials, contact your Regional Director as listed in the regional meeting calendar farther down in this message. Alternately, you can contact the TSPN central office at tspn@tspn.org for pick-up in Nashville or shipment to an address you specify (requests are processed twice a month in the order they are received).

Our thanks to Mid-Cumberland Regional Director Darrell Bouldin, alongside Advisory Council members Joseph Chatman III and Woody Woodruff, for coordinating and participating in the volunteer loadout of these shipments.

Photos from the Music City Behavioral Health and Wellness Summit, held April 23-24. Above: Gwen Hamer (left) with our Intra-State Departmental Group works the display table. At right: Mid-Cumberland Regional Director Darrell Bouldin (right) pictured with former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

The Rutherford County Suicide Prevention Coalition is active within Murfreesboro and surrounding areas, setting up exhibits at community events across the county.

Mid-Cumberland Regional Chair Brenda Harper staged an exhibit at Chippington Tower's open house for residents and the community in Nashville on March 21, displaying some of TSPN's new merchandise.

TSPN's regional and county task forces can set up events featuring suicide prevention and mental health information at any community event with sufficient notice. Contact your Regional Director to invite TSPN to your upcoming event!

South Central Regional Director Mary Anne Christian (farthest left) and Southwest Regional Director Emily Lunn (farthest right) co-facilitated an ASIST training for Mental Health Cooperative this month. Interested in learning more about ASIST and how to set up a session for your counselors and clinicians? Email your Regional Director for details!

TSPN is hosting its annual Survivors of Suicide Loss Conference on Saturday, November 2, from 9 AM-3 PM Central at a venue to be announced.

This year, our keynote speakers will be Harry and Jenny Bruell, authors of “The After Journey,” a survivor’s guide after the death of a loved one by suicide. This couple from Santa Barbara, California, lost their 14-year-old daughter to suicide, and they have dedicated their lives to supporting loss survivors and suicide prevention efforts.

The conference will feature the unveiling of the “Love Never Dies” Memorial Quilt, which features squares with the names and faces of those individuals who have died by suicide. Submissions for the 2024 quilt are now being accepted. Email karylofcolumbia@cs.com for more information.

We’re working on additional details of the conference and will share that information soon.