Suicide & Mental Health Resources

December 04, 2023

Translational Epidemiologist receives JKBF Award at ISSR

Once again JKBF partnered with the International Academy of Suicide Research (IASR) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to award an early career scientist investigating biological factors that may contribute to suicidal behaviors. At the 2023 International Summit on Suicide Research the third James Kirk Bernard Foundation Award for Excellence in the Biological Exploration of Suicide was presented to […]

July 23, 2022

Crisis Supports Streamlined: 988

Beginning on July 16, 2022, getting access to support in a mental health or suicide crisis has been streamlined.  Now, 988 is the three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the services of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, renamed the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.  The three digit number allows calls, texts, or chats with […]

May 17, 2022

Suicide Rates Have Dropped but Many Concerns Persist

National statistics have shown a decline in suicide deaths in both 2019 and 2020, touted by some as a shift in the tide that has shown increases over decades. Despite these two data points, underlying factors and trends indicate that there are still areas of concern. First, the pandemic and its ripple effects have resulted […]

May 05, 2022

The Suicide that Wasn’t

From the Lived Experience Why do some suicides seem to happen so “fast?” That question underscores many of the complexities, nuances, and possible solutions for a growing health crisis. As a Black American, I am driven to write about this phenomenon through the lens of people like me. My Story Invisibility. Invisible problems. In reality, […]

April 27, 2022

It’s Stress Awareness month – do you have tools?

April is Stress Awareness month and most of us are all too aware of stress in our lives. Recently The American Institute of Stress shared an important message about how stress and anxiety are not the same, and that stress is physiological. Learning how stress affects our bodies and how to manage it are essential to […]

April 06, 2022

A Clinician asks… ‘Could Sleep Help End the Youth Mental Health Crisis?’

From the Clinician  As her previous contribution showed, Dr. Kathleen Mackenzie’s blended insights as a clinician with lived experience provide important perspective. In a recent piece in Psychology Today, Dr. Mackenzie posed the question, Could Sleep Help End the Youth Mental Health Crisis? and set forth her arguments for targeting improved sleep for our youth. In this article […]

April 05, 2022

JKBF Awardee Publishes in SLEEP

In October, JKBF granted its second research award to Nikolaj Kjær Høier, a young scientist investigating biological factors important to suicide risk presenting at the 2021 International Summit on Suicide Research. We are pleased to share that his work has recently been published in SLEEP, the journal of the Sleep Research Society (SRS). Mr. Høier‘s paper, Association between hospital-diagnosed sleep […]

April 03, 2022

Recapping The Interplay of Environmental Exposures and Mental Health: Setting an Agenda

by Liz Bell Previously we reported insights on considerations of the often-overlooked impacts of environmental exposures on mental health in a series covering the National Academies of Science’s 2021 workshop, “The Interplay Between the Environment and Mental Health.”  Change is starting to occur, as the organizers now report, ‘Science and policy experts in the environmental […]

March 16, 2022

Statistics Show Reduction in Lives Lost to Suicide in 2020, Continued Need for Research and Prevention

Most of us will agree that 2020 was a year unlike anything we had experienced, as the world shut down in the face of a pandemic threat that was confusing, invasive, and ever-evolving. As we became more isolated and anxious, it was heartening to see open conversations about mental health and widespread recommendations for supportive […]

February 23, 2022

Grant to Active Minds supports National Conference 2022

JKBF’s 2021 grant of $12,500 to Active Minds supported their annual National Conference in February 2022. Turn It Up was designed as a hybrid conference to capitalize on the benefits of gathering in person as well as the expanded reach afforded by a virtual setting. Due to increases in Covid cases across the country, at […]