Tuesday, October 6, 2015

It's a beautiful day for a mental health checkup

Comedian Robin Williams suffered from depression and eventually committed suicide. TIZIANA FABI / AFP/Getty Images
1 in 5 fly fishers...

It's a beautiful day for a mental health checkup

by Karin Klassen, Calgary Herald, Oct 05, 2015

Today, on this most beautiful Alberta fall day, someone will go home to find the person they most love in this world, dead of something self-inflicted.

This devastating scene will play out close to 500 times this year in this province alone, maybe more with the bad economy. That’s the highest suicide rate in the country.

Anyone can join this club, and they do — across genders, cultures and ages — but the victim will probably be male, because they’re almost four times as likely to call it a day on their life, and with probably just 40 to 60 years spent on this Earth. Teenagers are also tragically welcome; it’s the most likely way they’ll leave their families behind to keep their rooms just as they were left, the day they “left.” In obituary terms, this is known as “died suddenly.”

As it turns out, people who feel desperate, do desperate things.

Today is National Depression Screening Day, and the Calgary Counselling Centre has provided an online link for you to take a free, anonymous screening test for this mental health issue that more than half a million people are treated for in Alberta every year.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1GvuRrb

‪#‎NationalDepressionScreeningDay‬ | ‪#‎yyc‬ | Canadian Mental Health Association - Calgary Region

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