welcome to bnd. ooich cheryl jennings. today's show is about preventing suicide. a serious public health problem that devastates the lives of friends, families and entire communities. the centers for disease control and prevention says that from

1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among adults jumped by nearly 30% to more than 38,000. making it the tenth leading cause of death for americans. one possible reason according to the cdc may be the economic downturn over the past decade. the report also finds that men are far more likely than women to take their own lives. while our first guest today is joining us from the american foundation for sued prevention, janice doudsy a volunteer board member of the greater san francisco chapter, and janice, thank you for being here today. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to talk about the reason you joined the foundation is very, very personal. you had a daughter named amanda. >> right. in 2004 our daughter, at age 18, died by suicide. she had been diagnosed at the age of 10 with clinical depression, which is a chemical imbalance. >> and what did you do about that? >> well, she went to a

psychiatrist who put her on prozac for a year, and it was a miracle drug for her. but they don't like to keep adolescents on antidepressants because they don't nope what the long-term effects are. so they weaned her off of it and she was fine but every two years it seemed she would need to be back on an antidepressant and got to know the feelings. but not being educated about depression at the time, we didn't realize that she should have gone back to treatment, back to therapy. we relied on our family doctor. >> so we want to show aamanda. i know this is tough four. she's so beautiful. died be died by suicide, how did your family deal with this? >> it was very hard to deal with it. you feel -- you feel very alone, and the house is very quiet.

you know, people come after it happens. the memorial service and then it's very quiet, and you don't know what to do. and you go searching for answers. >> well, you found the foundation. >> right. >> and that really made a difference for you. you're a volunteer. your husband works for them. what are the signs you need to look for in young people? >> the warning signs for suicide are obviously, a mental disorder. isolating themselves. giving away possessions. not wanting to talk to friends or relatives. pushing people away. talking about wanting to die. >> and if you hear this, if you see these signs what should a loved one do? what could a friend do? >> what a friend can do is let that person know that they care and that they're there for them and encourage them to seek help.

if it's an immediate crisis, there's the national suicide prevention life line that they can all. there's counselors there 24/7 and they'll get nem contact with the nearest crisis center. but let the person know you're there for them, you care for them. >> one of the things that helped save you and your family was finding a walk. >> right. >> there are walks that happen every year. >> right. our foundation has what they call out of the darkness walk. and the title means exactly that. out of the dark, because people who are depressed or feel that they're in a dark hole, and they don't see the light to get out. so that's why they're called out of the darkness. >> and the walks are fun, right? >> the walks are fun. you become a community. a small community. our first walk we went on approximately a year after my daughter passed away, i was looking for something.

found on the website and we went on our first walk. you feel very we loved. you're with people who care and who understand what you're been through or what you're going through. people are there who have lost someone just recently or 25 years ago or longer. >> so you've got a great support group right there. >> very great support group. >> and the website once again? >> afsp.org. >> janice, thank you so much for being here. sorry about the loss of your daughter, but i appreciate the work you're doing. >> thank you so much. and we do have to take a short break. we're going to meet in a moment an important organization working hard to minimize the high rate of suicide in our young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. stay wi

in mexican, 6'2", and he's a marine, and so just being gay was not, i did not want to be

gay and have my dad -- like, i was my dad. welcome back to "beyond the headlines" nap was part avid yo produced by the family acceptance project at san francisco state university. the organization works to minimize major health and related risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth such as suicide, substance abuse, hiv and homelessness in the context as a family. now, the project helps families from a wide range of background to decrease rejection and increase support for their lgbt children. here's a video they're working on. >> everybody take one. spread them out. >> even from those very early moments, you knw, you have expectations within your own mind of what you see your child growing up to be. >> looking back it is amazing to me how many things i just

explained away that now make so much sense. >> it was really depressing to see my parents supporting something that was completely against what i was. >> his parents hates people and this church hates people and that's the message that was received, and that was what we had to overcome. >> it was very confusing for me growing up mormon and thinking now i have a son that's gay. like, how does this fit? what i thought his life would be what i expected his life to be was now gone. >> our most important value as a church is the family. i was mortified at the idea of being disowned by my parents. >> what's the point of my life? i didn't -- i didn't have answers. >> i was thinking i would just like get on the phone, take them all at once and die right there

there's something not right with a 13-year-old having to think that. >> and he just said, this changes nothing. i think you are perfect in my eyes and i love you and you're exactly the way i want to you be, and we'll figure this out. >> reading and hearing stories of parents throwing their kids out in my church and thinking that's what our church is telling them to do. that's not the church i was raised in, and it is not the god and the christ that i believe in. this is not the end of the world. this is the beginning of your world. and how you're going to live that and the things that you're going to do are going to be magnificent. wow. very powerful. joining me in the studio right now is dr. claint rhine, the director of the family acceptance project at san francisco state university, and i so am impressed with that the content and qualityist video.

this is a passion project four. >> it is a passion project, and it's really grown out of my work over 40 years of lgbt health. >> you started 40 years ago? >> we recognized 20 or 30 years ago families had been left out of all of the service delivery for lgbt adolescence as they came out and families are critical and protected against risk for adolescence in general. that prompted me and my colleague raphael diaz to start this at san francisco state preep search, education and policy research project to prevent risk and promote well-being for lgbt adolescents and adults. >> and you mentioned young people are coming out an an earlier age. i know it's probably easier here on the west coast, perhaps, than other parts of the country?

>> they're actually coming out, because the information age that you're involved in on a daily basis has blown the closet door off its hinges. there's access to information not only in the media, online, in television shows, in popular culture, in public policy, years ago peel didn't know what -- people didn't know what being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender meant. what's important for so many people to understand is that sexual orientation is mostly about connectedness and the deep need that human beings have for intimate connection with others. only a small part of it is related to sex and so in terms of child development, young people today can know that they're gay or bisexual at very young age, younger than even 12 or 13, as young as 7 or 8 and 9. so that means that we have to support these children in the context of their family, their culture and their faith tradition >> i know that you have a lot of

resources going into this. a graphic we want to show people and if we can speak to the graphics we're going to show. we've got a graphic we want to put up here about some, the research here. you talk about lifetime suicide attempts. >> would you like me to speak on that? >> yes, please. >> we identified over 100 specific dehavers parents and caregivers use to respond to the lgbt children and measured in research to show how each affects health, mental health and well-being. rejecting behaviors, denying that an adolescent is lgbt, trying to change their sexual orientation, identity, preventing from learning about who they are during add lolesce and by the time they become young adults they're more than eight times as likely to attempt and take their own lives. >> oh, my goodness. this graphic talks about how people believe they can be a happy lgbt?

>> research also family accepting behavior, like talking with your child even when uncomfortable. standing up for them when others mistreat them because of who they are. requiring that other family members respect them even if they disagree, these behaviors are protective against suicide, substance abuse, depression and a way of vaccinating your child with love, if you will. >> i like that. people want to help you with your project, how can they do that? >> help by donating to us, part of san francisco state university. you can donate directly on our web page. we're the only project of this kind in the world and rely on donations and whatever we can gather together to purchase these multilingual, multieducational materials like the films. we have to show families hope, and how they can learn to support their lgbt children. our material, by the way, are a best practice for suicide prevention in the best practices

registry suicide prevention. >> thank you, doctor. >> sounds great. >> thank you for your work. we do have to take another break. when we come back we're going meet a local group working to prevent suicide, one of the world's most iconic landmarks. stay with us. we'll be right back.

people it's a romantic, beautiful spot to end your life. >> the golden gate bridge sees

two to three suicide victim as month. more than any other place in the world. welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about suicide prevention, about 1,600 people have jumped to their deaths at the bridge since it opened in the 1930s. yoin us fr joining us from the bridge rail foundation, thank you both for a being here pap tough subject for people to talk and hear about, but it's important. we have to do it. ken i want to talk to you first about you're a former marin county coroner and a founding board member of the bridge rail foundation. >> yes, ma'am. >> why did you decide to get involved with this? >> in my years working there at the coroner's office, i dealt with hundreds of families, and realizing what really suicide is about made me want to do something about the number of deaths at the bridge.

to try and stop the carnage at the bridge, because it's -- it is an icon of its own, but it's also the number one suicide destination on earth. >> it's just amazing to me that -- i guess it's hard for those of us who haven't contemplating such a thing to think about that, but, kay, you're in this foundation because of a personal situation? >> i lost my 28-year-old son michael in 2011, and i found out about the bridge rail foundation by reading the john basin book, the final leap, suicide from the golden gate bridge which came out in 2012. i said, oh, my gosh. there's an organization like that. i donated and ended up speaking with the president and eventually getting very involved. >> wow. i can't even imagine what it was like when you lost your son. can you tell us a little bit more about that? >> well, of course, it was shock.

>> did he tell anybody? >> no, no. not a clue whatsoever. he was to start new job. it was a monday morning, and he gone to work. he went to work, as we thought he was doing. of course, i didn't live with him. he lived in san francisco, an he went to the bridge at 9:00 in the morning and was witnessed jumping from the bridge. >> oh, my goodness. and the phone call that you got was from the coroner's office? >> actually, there wasn't -- there was no longary coroner. there's a sheriff. i got phone call at 3:00 in the afternoon and that's how i found out. >> so sorry. you know, we talked about how do you get through this? obviously part of this, your feeling, is working with an organization such as one ken is with? >> i found that to be very important, yes. >> now, ken, you -- we talked about this number, 1,600.

it's a shocking number of people, but those are the -- how did you define that? and do you find the body? do you -- count it as somebody that just says they, arrest has note? how does that work? >> the number has a little bit of estimate involved in it okay. all right. >> what we have found in going back over the records since the very, very beginning, is very many of the suicides were never recorded, and it depended on the agency that was trying to do any of the statistics. the highway patrol had a knob w a number that was total dlif and the coroner for san francisco hand manied most of the deaths, and then's in 1990, it sort of switched over to marin county. and at that point we began -- because technology's better, too. >> sure. >> and because the, sort of the influence about suicide and that sort of thing was beginning to grow.

so we took at active role in trying to document the number of deaths and the ones that were possibles, the ones that were never recovered, because every year there are some that are not recovered. >> let's talk about the safety net. there's a controversy about should we or shouldn't we? what are your thoughts on that? >> well, my advocacy has been an stopping suicide. the net was not my first choice in the beginning but having the bridge rail district -- i'm sorry. the bridge board make a decision to do something to stop the suicides was a major project by itself. they chose the net by design, because for one reason, it's a great deal less expensive than the others that were offered up. i believe that any suicide deterrent will effectively just stop suicide at the bridge. >> what are your thoughts, kay? >> absolutely.

i feel my son would be here foed there were some kind of barrier on the bridge. we're losing wonderful people. there are talented, wonderful people that are killing >> if peshouldn't. >> if people want to work yoir worgs, how do we gind you? >> a website, links to a multitude of different connections. that's how kay first came to our board and now is a very active board member. >> thank you very much for being here and what you're doing. >> thank you for having us and thank you for tackling this subject. >> appreciate the opportunity. >> and we do have to take another break. and when we come back we're going to actually meet somebody who survive add jump on the bridge. now he has turned around his life. so sta

welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about the devastating impact suicide has on our friends, families and communities, and what we could do to prevent it.

joining me in the studio now is kevin hines and several years ago, this is an unbelievable story. he went over the golden gate bridge with the intent to kill himself. miraculously he survived, is here is thriving a global speaker and author and outspoken advocate for mental health. i'm happy to see you here happy and in person. >> i'm happy to be here in more ways than one. >> this is the book. a great title "cracked: not broken." you say your dad came up with it? >> my dad came up with it. >> i'm sure your family is thrilled that you're here. how old are you when you did this? >> i was 19, due to bipolar disease, when i went to the golden gate bridge and attempted suicide by jumping off, the single worst action of my entire life was an instant regret and i just prayed i would live and thankfully i did. it was year later when my dad took me to the golden gate bridge to drop a flower off and

find closure. after i talked with the clergymen i decided to dedicate my life to trying to help prevent suicide and trying to help people define mendel illness. >> bipolar, things going on in your life that were -- >> certain things that were situational. really, my brain disease. my mental illness that made me suffer. >> your dad got involved? >> my dad got involved with the bridge foundation. i believe a co-founding member, and he works, his level to do what he can and i do what i can and the book is about -- it's for people who have lost someone to suicide, and want to find help and it's for people who have died by suicide so that they can have now a voice of that regret so people understand that suicide is not the answer in respect is hope in respether is hope. >> what kind of advice for parents? >> i had a conversation way

friend about this. you have to be completely honest. when your child is growing up about to go into high school, grade school. you have to tell them no matter what they go through, no matter what pain they deal with, that it's okay to talk to you, the parent. it's okay to let them know exactly wa you're going through, because they there are to help and they are there to heal and my problem is i go to these high schools and students come up to me and say i have this brain disease, and my parents don't believe it's real. that needs to change. all around the country, all around the globe, we need accept mental illness as fact and real, accept that they're tangible and help people with them find help. >> you're still dealing with it? you're managing it. >> every day i have simptoms of bipolar. it is extremely difficult to battle but die it and believe i will never attempt again, because i know the wake of destruction it leaves behind. >> and your final advice for folks at home watching right

now? >> i would say to folks at home watching right now, please, read the book. it can help. anyone, anywhere going through any kind of struggle, find their future, and it can help them see that hope and see that healing. >> all right. kevin, thank you so much. appreciate it. all right. that's all the time we have for today. big thank you to all of our wonderful guests today. for more information about today's program go to our website, abc 7 news.com/community and on facebook. and follow me on twitter at cherylabc7. i'm cheryl jennings. have a great week. we'll see you next time.

jeff: welcome to a special episode of ocean mysteries. today we'll be joining barry leveau, julio salazar, and a brave group of veterans on a journey to heal their physical and emotional scars diving in the world's largest aquarium alongside the largest fish on the planet. we'll make new friends, listen to incredible stories, and learn to heal the mind and heart, coming up next. ♪ music