Suicide Prevention Program in Washington

The state of Washington has a suicide prevention curriculum par excellence. It has been recognized as a model by a national resource. The name of the program is "The Help Every Living Person" and it teaches high school students about suicide prevention. The curriculum includes help for a friend who is thinking about suicide, increases communication skills and generally is a benefit for students for whom suicide is a real concern. To tell the truth, suicide is a big concern at the high school level. No surprise there. Since students are immersed in a culture that cheapens life and promotes suicide.

Death education, which begins in the primary grades, has the Life Boat Game, which asks first graders, who would they save if an epidemic broke out? Their choices are a handicapped person, a person of color, or a healthy person. Usually the teacher grades the child's paper, and then returns the it to the child, so they can make the right choice. I believe this is more than a subliminal message on health. How about death education for high school children, that takes them to the morgue? What is said there only God knows. But, it is not healthy. We have developed as a country a certain perverse and morbid fascination with death. Music and films are filled with death, especially Rap. This fascination with death becomes an accepted way of life, which leads to an acceptance of suicide.

Washington state's program was created in 2006 by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with a $100,000 grant from the state legislature. This is the same legislature that recently legalized assisted suicide. Perhaps it's too bad that terminally ill people don't qualify for this curriculum. A conspiracy theory? You bet.

  

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