Colorado ranks 7th in the
nation for deaths by suicide.
And because this month is suicide
awareness and Prevention Month,
it's really a good time to share
that there are resources available.
Joining our conversation this morning is
Steve Fisher and Marshall are Markel Taylor,
excuse me, with well power,
a community mental Health Center in Denver.
Thank you both so much for coming in.
It's an important message.
It seems like more and more people are
struggling with mental health issues.
Is that what you're seeing at,
well, power?
Yes, we do. We see people with
a great deal of life stressors.
Mental health issues,
interpersonal relationship issues,
and fortunately people are seeking treatment.
That's one of the Silver Linings
of the pandemic as more and
more people have an awareness
that is good, what do you what do you
want people to know about suicide?
The biggest, one of the biggest
takeaways that we can kind of get
out today is that everybody plays
a role in suicide prevention.
So if your neighbor, if your loved,
your family member, your coworker,
anybody in your circle of contacts
is going through some kind of stress,
talk to them about it.
Don't avoid it. Don't.
Feel like this would this would
be that rude or this would be,
but instead gently approach them
and be respectful and compassionate
and have a conversation.
And then if you find that they
are in distress,
help get them to crisis services or
some kind of outpatient treatment so
that they can get the help they need.
And there are a lot of services that
are available right here in this state,
a lot of resources, which is great.
So Markel, your story is pretty incredible.
It's come really full circle in your life,
but you had a point in time where
you were really struggling,
you had suicidal thoughts.
Talk about that and where you are today.
You know, Steve always
saying he taught me well.
He says emotional pain minus acceptance,
equal suffering.
So when you live in the disorder,
it's almost it becomes normal
to live in it so you don't.
The normal life is the disorder,
life, suffering for so long like that.
And then finally going back to prison
six years ago, doctors came in,
gave me treatment and transformed me
into an advocate living in those dark,
dark, emotional. Periods.
You can only suffer for so long before you,
your body, brain and mind just shuts down.
Hmm. And that's kind of what happened.
It just shuts down.
And Steve, Nina Minagawa,
our professor, Kim Gorgons, really,
really focused on decreasing
that disorder inside of me.
I always say they, like,
uprooted the psychological cancer that
had lived inside of me so that now I
can't live in the power of Wellness.
And that's what it is about
getting treatment.
We're afraid,
especially the minority communities.
They're afraid to get treatment.
They don't understand that they're sick.
They live in it for so long.
So now getting the treatment
and being transformed,
I just always say from prison to willpower.
So
you, you recognize what was going on, right?
You got treatment and now you help others.
Yes. I work as a on a 0 suicide
team at willpower, like I say,
from prison to power, you know,
and we are, I'm a caring contact
person where I call individuals that
are on our suicide prevention pathway
and let them know that we care,
let them know that we're there
for them every step of the way.
Or if I could resource them out,
it's a new program we started
thanks to my supervisor, Steve,
our psychological Shepherd.
I always call him. And. Yeah.
And we just want people to know
that there is power in Wellness,
there is power and treatment.
There is power.
When you come over to this side.
Well, I think that you sharing
your story is so powerful because I
think a lot of the times people feel
connected to someone who has walked
the path that they're in currently.
And so that's why your voice is so important,
truly like talking to
myself on the other side.
You know you've been there, right?
Well, this is great that you guys
came on and talked about this because
I really think that mental health is
something that we need to talk about more,
something that, you know,
we're dealing with a lot lately.
So this is really great that you came on.
Thank you so much.
TBI's, Wonder Woman of Brain
science, professor, Kim Gorgons,
how it applies to suicide.
OK. And so as we were talking about,
there are several resources
that are available right now,
including, well, power.
If you need to talk to someone immediately,
help us always one call or text away.
You can now text 988,
which is also the new mental
health crisis hotline as well.