Florida Suicide Prevention Training Deserves Gov. Scott's Approval

Pledge Of Allegiance, Suicide Prevention Training Among Bills That Survived Session 
WSFU.com
By Sascha Cordner
MAR 18, 2016

Hannah Jines is a teacher from Lakeland. About seven years ago, her father committed suicide.

“On January 12, 2009, at 8 o’ clock, my uncle had called me and his exact words were, ‘there was an accident and your father didn’t make it,’” she said. “Now, I knew my dad had been struggling with depression and alcoholism, PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder], and so, in the pit of my stomach, I knew it wasn’t an accident, I knew it was a suicide. At first, no one in my family wanted to admit that it was a suicide, and no one definitely wanted to talk about it.”

She says stigma is one of the worst parts of losing someone to suicide.

“The stigma was so strong that our Pastor refused to let us name the church in his obituary,” Jines added.

Jines says it was around that time, she started getting depressed.

“My father was a retired Master Chief in the Navy. He served 25 dedicated years and he was so put together,” she continued. “No one would have ever thought that he would have ever taken his life. I never thought that I would have experienced a suicide in my family.

Unfortunately, mental illness does not discriminate. I felt like I had this picture perfect family and it was just shattered. I went through the darkest time in my life. I battled depression myself, afterwards, and I wanted to end my own life.”
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