Creating a crisis safety plan. Hacks for the rest of us.

This is not to take the place of a suicide assessment, or professionally-developed safety plan

This post is about the many creative ways to apply the concept of suicide safety planning in order to support a loved one (or yourself) when they are emotionally vulnerable, in crisis, or at risk of making a decision that can result in a threat to life such as suicide or addiction relapse. We can call it the emotional crisis safety plan.

It’s a way to remind an individual of their connection to life, healthy coping strategies they have identified as helpful, as well … Read more...

Podcast: The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations

Hosted by: Melissa Bottorff-Arey

Includes how to get unstuck and survival tools for suicide loss. Go to the podcast website.

Listen here or on these popular platforms:

… Read more...

Kutztown University 6th Annual Clinical Updates Colloquium

Kim O’Brien talks about safety planning with teens

Kim O’Brien, PhD, LICSW, and I spoke at this event for social workers. It was such an honor for me to co-present with Kim and she was amazing. We are in the first three hours. It’s long. But worthwhile if you work with adolescents which were our focus.

Watch at the YouTube link below:

https://youtu.be/cHtKtXVoxKY

Kim was my co-author for the book, Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognize Students at Risk. My first book, a memoir is Diary of a Broken Mind which includes my son’s lyrics … Read more...

How to kill yourself with sodium nitrite

“My cerebellum is difficult to live with.”

–Charles Aubrey Rogers, Rap Song, “Diary of a Broken Mind“

I lost my son Charles Aubrey Rogers to suicide in 2015. The funniest, most popular kid in school, he was there for others and in his memory, I want to be there for you.

I know you feel like you have to … Read more...

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope Podcast with Anne Moss Rogers

Struggling in the Darkness of our Loss with host Laura Diehl and Anne Moss Rogers. This episode has a lot of practical advice for those who are struggling deeply in the darkness of grief after child loss. Being a mom who lost her son to suicide, Anne Moss made a conscious decision to figure out how to work through the guilt, shame, and horrific darkness to be able to live a life of meaning and purpose again, both to honor her son, Charles, and to help those who find themselves contemplating ending their own life.

Listen to and read … Read more...

Young Adults, I have been in your shoes

By Tammy Ozolins, Middle School Teacher

It is such a cliché I know; your world feels like it is crashing down, you have no energy. You even feel like your world is getting darker and darker and all you want is to see a little glimmer of hope. Your days are long, and you are tired of it all. The walls are closing in on you and you cannot breathe.

Does this sound familiar at all?

That is exactly how I felt when I was at my lowest point of depression (I manage and cope with Bipolar Disorder-which was not … Read more...

We didn’t know…a poem about surviving the suicide of a sibling

by Tammy New Hallstein

Tammy New Hallstein and her brother, Ryland New Jr.

We didn’t know that you were drowning in emotional distress

We didn’t know that you decided that the way to save yourself was to end your life

We didn’t know that we could cry in our sleep; that we could cry so many tears for so long

We didn’t know that the last time we saw you, heard your voice, or shared a conversation, a phone call, or text with you, that it would be the final time

We didn’t know that it was possible to feel … Read more...

Lost and found journal entry from after my daughter’s suicide

Maggie Moyler

by Charlotte Moyler

November 16, 2021 

While straightening up my office, I ran across a ratty-looking notebook. It had no real meaning and I almost tossed it. I am quick to get rid of things. A quick glance through it, made me sit down and read. Unusual entries gave greater meaning as I look back over the years since losing Maggie to suicide. 

Here is my long-forgotten journal entry… 

April 7, 2014 

I have a story to tell but I don’t want to tell it. It is a very sad story full of great pain and suffering. … Read more...

Stand Tall Leadership Show with Anne Moss Rogers

STAND TALL LEADERSHIP SHOW | Listen Notes

This podcast features, Anne Moss Rogers. Following her son Charles’s tragic suicide on June 5, 2015, she sold her digital marketing business to speak on the topics of mental health and suicide prevention with a focus on helping educators build a climate and culture of student wellness.

Her second book, Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk written with co-writer Kim O’Brien, PhD, licensed clinical social worker, was published in August 2021 through Jossey Bass.

Hosted by Steve Bollar, also known as Stand TALL Steve, an educational leader … Read more...

Anne Moss Rogers on Al Levin’s Depression Files Podcast

Al Interviews Anne Moss Rogers | Certified Suicide Prevention Trainer, Public Speaker, Award-Winning Author & Mother of a Son (Charles) Who Died by Suicide

Show Notes

Listen on Podbean

Listen on Player FM

One more way to listen below:

… Read more...

What does a school counselor say to a parent who refuses to support a suicidal child?

Click here to go the Sample Script (you will stay on this page)

A school counselor in my Arizona workshop, The Emotionally Naked Truth About Student Suicide, told me she had a student in the office who shared her thoughts of suicide and when she called the parent they yelled at her and then forbade the child to speak to her.

The parents were ashamed and outraged with their child for talking about such things with a counselor.

You might default to thinking that the parents are terrible people and while they might be, it is usually a cultural … Read more...

After a suicide at a school or college. What do you do?

The term “postvention” describes an intervention initiated after a traumatic event and for the purposes of this post, the term refers specifically to an intervention following a death by suicide on a school campus. An effective response includes communication, connection, healthy grieving, commemoration, stabilization, coping skills and resilience development, as well as advocacy.

For an immediate list of to-dos in the aftermath of a suicide on a school campus, see this page.

Good postvention is good prevention

The knee-jerk reaction by schools and colleges is to cancel everything. But the opposite is recommended. Furthermore, the administration usually tries to … Read more...

‘Toolkit’ provides strategies for supporting youth

Article in the Henrico Citizen by Patty Kruszewski

Editor’s note: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline may be reached by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).  Free 24/7 support is also available by texting HOME to 741741, the crisis text line.

As Anne Moss Rogers opened her presentation at an Innsbrook Rotary meeting with the story of her son’s suicide, one Rotarian turned to another and said, “Wow. How can she say that so calmly?”

But while Rogers seemed matter-of-fact as she recited the facts of Charles’ death in 2015, that purposeful, no-nonsense exterior conceals an ocean of upheaval and churning emotions within…..

… Read more...

Books for children on grief and suicide grief

How do you explain loss to a child? The books on this page help children understand or relate to loss including a death by suicide.

Do you tell a child that their parent, sibling, or other loved one has died by suicide? The answer is yes but actually telling them in an age-appropriate way is difficult. The book below has those scripts to guide you in that conversation.

Spanish translated books at the bottom of the page.

This page contains some Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, the blog gets a few cents at no … Read more...