• Suicide Prevention Home
• FAQ About Suicide
• Risk Factors
• Protective Factors
• Warning Signs
• Information for Parents
• Mental Illness & Suicide
• Online Training
• In-Person Training
• What A Difference A Friend Makes (SAMHSA)
• Helping Your Peers
• Resources Links
• Kalamazoo Suicide Prevention Plan
• Michigan Suicide Prevention Plan
• National Suicide Prevention Plan
• Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Campus & Community Resources

University Counseling and Testing Center (269-387-1850) is intended to help students deal productively with concerns, issues, or problems confronting them. Sometimes simply sharing thoughts and feelings in confidence with someone who is objective and a good listener can be helpful. The University Counseling and Testing Center provides free counseling services for actively enrolled WMU students.
Centers for Counseling and Psychological Services (Kalamazoo: 269-387-5105; Grand Rapids: 616-771-4171) are a service, training, and research component of the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology. The centers, one in Sangren Hall on WMU's main campus in Kalamazoo and one in the downtown Graduate Center in Grand Rapids, provide practical training opportunities for graduate students by offering affordable mental health services to residents of southwestern Michigan. The Centers for Counseling and Psychological Services provide free counseling for WMU students.
Sindecuse Health Center (269-387-3290), located on WMU's Kalamazoo campus, offers convenient, cost-saving services with an experienced multidisciplinary staff dedicated to helping members of the University community maintain and improve their health. Sindecuse Health Center provides evaluation and treatment for a variety of illnesses and injuries, preventative health check-ups, periodic health monitoring, as well as health promotion opportunities that enhance individual and community health.
Police Department, Department of Public Safety
511 Monroe Street
Kalamazoo, MI 49006-5418
(269) 387-5555

Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
3299 Gull Road
Nazareth, MI 49074
269-373-6000
Gryphon Place
1104 S. Westnedge Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
269-381-1510
211 24-Hour Crisis
Survivors of Suicide Meetings
Gryphon Place
1104 S. Westnedge Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Contact: Judy Whitehurst at 269-381-1510

Summit Pointe (Community Mental Health)
140 West Michigan Avenue
Battle Creek, Michigan 49017
269-966-1460 or 800-783-5449 Voice
800-632-5449 24-Hour Crisis

Berrien Mental Health Authority
PO Box 547
Benton Harbor, Michigan 49023
269-927-6065 Voice
269-925-0585 or 800-336-0341 24-Hour Crisis
Touched by Suicide (Survivors of Suicide Meetings)
Samaritan Center
1850 Colfax
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
Contact Lou Burdick at (269) 926-6199

network180 (Community Mental Health)
728 Fuller Avenue, NE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
616-336-3765 Voice
616-336-3909 24-Hour Crisis
West Michigan Survivors of Suicide Meetings
2548 Newberry Lane SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49508
Contact Ethel Bucek at (616) 971-1000

CMH of Ottawa County
12265 James Street
Holland, Michigan 49424
616-392-1873 Voice
866-512-4357 24-Hour Crisis
West Michigan Survivors of Suicide Meetings
270 Hoover Blvd.
Holland, MI 49423
Contact: Andrea Reiffer at (616) 396-2972 ext. 273

CMH Authority of Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Counties
812 East Jolly Road, Suite G-10
Lansing, Michigan 48910
517-346-8200 Voice
800-372-8460 24-Hour Crisis
Capital Area Survivors of Suicide Meetings
4287 Five Oaks Drive
Lansing, MI 48911
Contact: Kathy Davis at (517) 882-3506

CMH Services of Muskegon County
376 Apple Avenue
Muskegon, Michigan 49442
231-724-1111 Voice
231-722-4357 24-Hour Crisis
West Michigan Survivors of Suicide Meetings
Calvin Christian Reformed Church
973 W. Norton Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49441
Contact: Bryan Grover or Joan Grover at (231) 766-0064

VanBuren Community Mental Health Authority
801 Hazen Street, Suite C, PO Box 249
Paw Paw, Michigan 49079
269-657-5574 Voice
800-922-1418 24-Hour Crisis

Northern Lakes CMH Authority
105 Hall Street, Suite A
Traverse City, Michigan 49684
231-922-4850 Voice
231-922-4802 24-Hour Crisis

Active Minds (www.activemindsoncampus.org) is the nation's only peer-to-peer organization dedicated to the mental health of college students. The organization serves as the young adult voice in mental health advocacy on more than fifty college campuses nationwide. Active Minds develops and supports student-run mental health awareness, education, and advocacy chapters on college campuses across the country.
The American Association of Suicidology (www.suicidology.org/) strives to understand and prevent suicide. It promotes research, public awareness programs, and training for professionals and volunteers and serves as a national clearinghouse for information on suicide.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (www.afsp.org/) has been at the forefront of a wide range of suicide prevention initiatives in 2007—each designed to reduce loss of life from suicide. We are investing in groundbreaking research, new educational campaigns, innovative demonstration programs and critical policy work. And we are expanding our assistance to people whose lives have been affected by suicide, reaching out to offer support and offering opportunities to become involved in prevention.
Campus Blues (www.campusblues.com) features information and resources for students on social and emotional issues, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, gambling, and a variety of other topics.
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (www.dbsalliance.org) is the nation’s leading patient-directed organization focusing on depression and bipolar disorder. The organization fosters an understanding about the impact and management of these life-threatening illnesses by providing up-to-date, scientifically-based tools and information written in language the general public can understand. DBSA supports research to promote more timely diagnosis, develop more effective and tolerable treatments and discover a cure. The organization works to ensure that people living with mood disorders are treated equitably. “We’ve been there. We can help.”
Go Ask Alice! (www.goaskalice.columbia.edu) is a health Q&A service provided by Columbia University. It works to provide readers with reliable, accessible information and a range of thoughtful perspectives. "Alice!" answers questions about relationships; sexuality; sexual health; emotional health; fitness; nutrition; alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs; and, general health. All questions are read and remain anonymous. Go Ask Alice! is supported by a team of health educators, health care providers, and other health professionals, along with information and research specialists from health-related organizations worldwide, and responses undergo a standardized review process to insure high quality and accuracy.
The Jason Foundation (www.jasonfoundation.com) provides information, tools, and resources to students, educators/youth workers, and parents that will enable early detection of at-risk behavior and guide them to local help resources.
Jed Foundation (www.jedfoundation.org) is the nation’s leading organization working to prevent suicide and promote mental health among college students. We are guided by an expert board of mental health professionals in our efforts to identify the underlying causes of suicide and produce effective prevention, awareness and intervention programs.
National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families. NAMI organizations in every state join together to meet the NAMI mission through advocacy, research, support, and education.
National Council for Suicide Prevention (www.ncsp.org) furthers effective suicide prevention through collaborative activities and information sharing in order to save lives.
National Hopeline Network (www.hopeline.com) provides 24 hour emergency support for callers to 1-800-SUICIDE since people in crisis generally don't have the energy or ability to take on a long search for help. When those looking for support dial 1-800-SUICIDE they are seamlessly connected to an available certified crisis center nearest to their calling location.
The National Institute of Mental Health (www.nimh.nih.gov) is one of 27 components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Federal government's principal biomedical and behavioral research agency. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NIMH mission is to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior. This public health mandate demands that we harness powerful scientific tools to achieve better understanding, treatment, and eventually, prevention of these disabling conditions that affect millions of Americans.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) is a 24-hour, toll-free suicide prevention service available to anyone in suicidal crisis. If you need help, please dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You will be routed to the closest possible crisis center in your area. With over 120 crisis centers across the country, our mission is to provide immediate assistance to anyone seeking mental health services. Call for yourself, or someone you care about. Your call is free and confidential.
The Suicide Prevention Action Network (www.spanusa.org/) is dedicated to preventing suicide through public education and awareness, community engagement, and federal, state and local grassroots advocacy. SPAN USA seeks to empower those who have been touched by suicide.
The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (www.sprc.org/) provides prevention support, training, and resources to assist organizations and individuals to develop suicide prevention programs, interventions and policies, and to advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.
ULifeline (www.ulifeline.com) is an online resource center for college student mental health and emotional well being that was created by the Jed Foundation.

BOOKS

Remembering Garrett
Gordon H. Smith
Senator Gordon Smith’s son Garrett took his own life at the age of 22. The suicide was absolutely heart-breaking for Smith and his wife. Smith was forced to question whether he had the strength or even the desire to carry on in politics. Smith candidly retraces his son’s life leading up to his suicide and chronicles the crippling sadness he and his wife faced in the aftermath. With the help of faith and others around him, Smith not only returned to politics, but has become a tireless advocate of suicide prevention. Smith’s memoir speaks from the heart as a parent to other parents who have experienced the same tragedy.
No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One
Carla Fine
The suicide of a loved one is still an act most people are unable to talk about or even to admit. This is just one of the many painful and paralyzing truths author Carla Fine discovered when her husband took his own life. Being unable to speak openly and honestly about the cause of her pain made it all the more difficult for her to survive. Here she brings suicide survival from the darkness into the light, speaking frankly about the overwhelming feelings of confusion, guilt, shame, anger, and loneliness that are shared by all survivors. Carla Fine offers a strong helping hand and invaluable guidance to the thousands who are left behind each year, struggling to make sense of an act that seems to them senseless, and to pick up the pieces of their own shattered lives.
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
Karla Redfield Jamison
Suicide isn't just a single, isolated pain, but a societal epidemic with recognizable symptoms. Here Jamison adjusts personal experiences into patterns, carefully accounting for the psychological, biological, and societal factors. She shows us which people are most at risk for suicide and how those people can be overwhelmed by compounded distress. The stories hurt, each one, but then they make sense.
An Empty Chair: Living in the Wake of a Sibling’s Suicide
Sara Swan Miller
The accounts of siblings' experiences in An Empty Chair are based on interviews with more than 30 people from all over the United States, as well as the author Sara Swan Miller's own experience of losing a sister to suicide. Just as sibling relationships are varied and complex, so the feelings and experiences of sibling suicide survivors run a long and complex gamut from deep grief, to anger, to guilt, to relief. Often these feelings are intermixed. The survivors are often bewildered by the complexity of their feelings, including reactions that may seem shameful or inappropriate. These moving accounts will help other sibling survivors of sibling suicide see that they are not alone. No matter what their feelings and reactions are, there are others who have shared them.

Standing in the Shadow: Help and Encouragement for Suicide Survivors
June Cerza Kolf
The end of a precious life has come unnaturally. You may wonder how you can possibly survive your loved one's suicide. Anger, guilt, hopelessness, and unanswered questions may swirl around in your mind while you try to hang on, searching for a sign that you will come through this trauma in your life. With deep sensitivity, June Cerza Kolf, a veteran of hospice work, addresses the uniquely painful issues you are facing right now, such as forgiveness, depression, and the search for answers. Standing in the Shadow will lead you through mourning to acceptance and will help you release your guilt and anger and embrace the mighty power of prayer.