Mental health professionals, educators, and others concerned with addressing Colorado’s high suicide rate will gather in Denver Friday for the 6th annual "Bridging the Divide" conference.
Colorado has the eighth-highest rate of suicide in the country. Over the ten years suicide rates have gone up drastically nationwide, prompting the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office to create a national prevention strategy.
Jarrod Hindman, director for Colorado’s Office of Suicide Prevention, says one of their goals is to align the conference with that national strategy.
"So we designed keynotes, presentations and breakout presentations around how Colorado is doing great work that goes hand in hand with the national strategy," Hindman says. "Of course some of that deals with the economy and certain high-risk groups for suicide that we should be focusing and continue to focus our prevention efforts toward."
Colorado is trying a unique approach for reaching out to one of those groups - men aged 25 to 54 - with a campaign called "Man Therapy." The online program takes a humorous approach to fighting depression, targeting men who often are unwilling to seek traditional mental health services.
The conference is open to the public and takes place Friday, May 17 at the Denver Tech Center Marriott.
