SOS Meets, Hoping to Help Youth

Kelly Cederberg and Kate Webb, Guidance Counselors at Malta Public Schools teamed up with therapist Morgan Streeter and Local Advisory Counselor (LAC) Chairman Janice Reichelt, to host an educational night at the Malta auditorium on Tuesday, November 29th.

The issue was youth suicide. The goal was to increase information about recognizing the symptoms and then encouraging action to address negative factors that overwhelm a person's positive factors and predispose the person to making the decision to attempt to take their life.

School Counselors Cederberg and Webb presented on a S.O.S. (Signs of Suicide) program that encourages parents to engage their adolescents in productive conversation.

This program has already been being utilized to train people's peers to notice and take action when behavior changes occur and they are concerned that their friends are being overwhelmed. The plan is to have early identification and treatment. The hope of increasing good coping skills and decreasing bad ones such as the use of alcohol will happen.

Therapist Streeter followed with education on available treatment plans for the person and their family. She is an employee at the Phillips County Hospital and works in a grant capacity at this time. The Montana Hospital Association sponsored this program and it has proven that people who need help will partake in counseling if the cost factor is decreased.

Reichelt added to the session with a personal testimony on the pain incurred by a family when there is a child suicide attempt. She handed out updated resource lists of available resources in our county and noted that we have many underutilized services available currently including an addictions specialist that comes from Glasgow weekly and has an office at the business center. It is planned to feature a different resource weekly in our local newspaper.

Janice ended with a true Christmas story about a young girl who made it through the holidays when a youth leader hired her to be a mother's helper. The girl had identified that she thought of killing herself because no one needed her. The young mother, who received the strange baby gift of a hired helper every afternoon, knew she was trained to help, because she once felt the same desolate way and the girl responded to someone hugging her hello and saying "I am so glad that you are here, I need you to read Christmas stories to the three-year-old today!" Or "Today we are making cookies!" Do not underestimate the power of a loving community!