EVANSTON — “We’re trying to prevent [self-harm and suicide] and help people by educating and connecting them to resources,” says Community Prevention Specialist Kendra …
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EVANSTON — “We’re trying to prevent [self-harm and suicide] and help people by educating and connecting them to resources,” says Community Prevention Specialist Kendra Safford. She oversees both the Uinta County Suicide Prevention Task Force and the Uinta County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.
“We do lots of things with our biennium (funding every two years) grant. We do evidence-based strategizing to implement and spread prevention messages,” she said.
Safford’s county-agency position is funded through the Wyoming Department of Health, and addresses a host of sensitive issues including: suicide prevention, tobacco and vaping prevention, underage marijuana and alcohol use and adult overconsumption prevention and opioid and other stimulant (fentanyl, meth and heroin) awareness and prevention. Safford’s programs also have access to nonprofit funding in addition to local fundraisers, the latter of which is garnered through networking with community stakeholders and through hosting and attending events with resource booths.
Training available
Training courses and workbooks, in addition to stickers, wallet cards and other supplies, offered to the community through Safford’s office are:
Question-Persuade-Refer (QPR) incorporated training which employs three simple steps that can help prevent someone from committing suicide.
SafeTALK, is a half-day of training that teaches people how to recognize and connect with someone contemplating suicide with helpful resources. Safford explains that someone that had once attended the training followed up with her that “they used it on their job to talk someone down and they saved a life.”
ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) which is a comprehensive and extensive two-day workshop that enhances recognition of suicidal ideations and intervention. “This is more in depth, upstream things to do, like how to interact with a suicidal person. We provide lunch, snacks and drinks for ASIST training because the content of the training is triggering and sensitive. We want ... [the participants] to spend both days with us so we can continue to check on them.”
Anyone, any agency in the community is welcome to attend. All trainings require a minimum number of committed participants, and there are age restrictions for certain trainings, typically ages 16 and older. School district personnel are incentivized to attend training for continuing education credit.
“If we can’t do the presentation, we’ll connect them with law enforcement or therapists. I can partner with places for private training as well,” Safford said, explaining endless coordination efforts that her office provides.
“We’re hoping to continue offering these courses for free,” she added.
Working with local providers
Safford is excited about a newer program working with local mental health providers, including Pioneer Counseling Services and High County Behavioral Health, to provide financial assistance and transportation opportunities to those in need by paying for leftover co-pay costs for therapy. “We call it our ‘mental health contract,’” she said adding, “the funds have to be related to suicidal ideations, or suicide survivor grief counseling. To date, it’s helped 122 clients with over 470 mental health services.”
Safford, who has been in her position for nearly six years, also has extensive experience working with the youth drug and alcohol court for the City of Evanston.
“We’re seeing a lot of youth suicides and it seems to be general consensus that there’s an uptick of youth suicide attempts in the aftermath,” Safford said.
It’s a delicate balance between safely reporting about suicides and not inspiring others to follow suit.
“We don’t want to cause more harm than good,” Safford said.
“We are partnering with local school districts to utilize the background on student Chromebooks to display prevention media and resources such as promoting Safe2Tell, vaping/tobacco prevention, youth marijuana use prevention, underage drinking prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health resources. Our hope is to partner with all Uinta County School Districts and be able to get prevention messaging and resources on all student Chromebooks in the future,” she said.
Safford told the Herald that middle-aged man demographic has long held the most suicides per capita.
988 Hotline
“In Uinta county, we had seven miners commit suicide within five years. We’re developing a project, partnering with Lincoln County, specifically targeting miners.” Safford specifically recognizes state House Representative Jon Conrad from Uinta County as a tireless ally regarding the development and implementation of the new campaign, as well as continuing to promote and fight for funding for the 988 hotline, which is a 24-hour Suicide and Crisis line.
Conrad told the Herald, “of over 5,000 calls made [to the hotline] in 2022, only 2% required de-escalation or engagement [from law enforcement or medical professionals]. 98% of issues were resolved through the hotline.”
“The stigma of Wyoming grit, to be tough, we want to break the stigma. We want it to be OK for folks to reach out for help,” Safford said of their take on Cheyenne Frontier Days’ successful Pick Up Man Campaign, which they launched at Evanston Cowboy Days in 2022.
“Folks really resonated with the gritty cowboy and tough guys, who still need to reach out for help. Organizers sold 5,000 feathers for a couple bucks a piece. We made $500, and we’re hoping to continue it again this summer. Proceeds go right back into the program to help with resources and access,” she said.
Safford said her office is hoping to keep up with technology trends by updating posters and wallet cards with QR codes, directly linked to prevention resources. She will also continue to promote and hand out free gun locks, pill and medication lock boxes and drug-deactivation kits. The kits deactivate medication through charcoal bags.
Safford stressed the importance of drug take-back days, encouraging folks to donate or drop off unused medications at the Sheriff’s Office or Uinta Pharmacy in the Bridger Valley.
While Suicide Prevention Month is in September, Safford and her crew work year ‘round and are extending their efforts and resources to businesses and recently, the local food bank.
The AgriStress Helpline for Wyoming, 833-897-2474, is for farm and agricultural workers.
Safford remains grateful for her consistent and passionate community volunteers and desires to encourage more people to get involved after a noticeable drop in participation since the Covid pandemic.
“We have a lot more volunteers for suicide prevention than substance abuse, but people don’t realize how closely they’re related, they really go hand-in-hand,” she said. “But shout out to the wonderful members we have on both. We have representation from schools, churches, hospitals, businesses, all different community sectors are at the table, and they’re very much appreciated.”
Her office accepts monetary donations as well.
The Uinta County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Monday of every month, alternating between the Human Services conference room and the Mountain View Library. May’s meeting will be held at the latter.
The Uinta County Suicide Prevention Task Force meets on the third Wednesday of every month at Uinta BOCES room 304 at 5:30 p.m.
The American Legion in the Bridger Valley will host a suicide prevention event, on June 1, featuring a pancake breakfast, Be the One program — which is geared toward preventing first responder suicides — and a walk.
Uinta County Sheriff Andy Kopp recently met with the Herald to discuss mental health initiatives currently being explored and implemented at the county jail.
“We have a lot of inmates that suffer from mental health issues that can’t be in general population,” Kopp said. “It’s for their safety and that of everyone detained here.”
Jail administrator Lt. Brenden Morrow explained that Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas recently offered to purchase and provide four new video cameras to outfit the 72-hour holding block into a pod of four cells for mental health detainees. The cells will be used by inmates who have explicitly voiced suicidal ideations and/or made attempts at suicide.
“General population has one camera covering many cells,” Morrow said. “In this pod, we’ll have a camera in the day room and, thanks to the [county] attorney’s office, each cell will also have surveillance.”
“We’re running out of room to put those with mental health problems,” Kopp said. “Jails are not the place for them, but they still end up here.”
In response, Kopp said that he’s begun meeting with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and High Country Behavioral Health every three months to troubleshoot solutions.
“We’re trying to be as proactive as possible. What can we do better, as law enforcement, to improve mental health care?”
Kopp continued by recognizing and praising his jail staff.
“I give credit to my detention staff. Many do an excellent job with mental health care. They build rapport with the inmates, especially the long-term ones, while on patrol.” “We’re not a mental-health-equipped facility, but we’re trying to keep up with the problems we’re seeing,” Kopp said.
