Lifeskills promotes awareness for Suicide Awareness Month

BOWLING GREEN Ky. – Counsellors at Lifeskills in Bowling Green are working hard to promote Suicide Awareness Month and the full functionality of the Team Kentucky nine-eight-eight help line.

This line allows individuals a spectrum of uses from mental health crisis assistance to those who are not having a good day mentally to call or text and receive feedback from a mental health professional. This service is free and goes further than some national hotline wherein the service will check on the individual the next day in some cases to ensure they are still functioning.

Melanie Watts and Katie Hopper at Lifeskills say that the service has dramatically reduced the level of police involvement in mental health crisis in the state which allows the person to get help without worrying about being arrested.

“This is a month where we can really spend time doing outreach and education and really reminding folks that mental health care is super important and it doesn’t matter what your background is, what your age is, what your gender is, it affects everybody.” Hopper said.