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UM News
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (October 17, 2016) – Some wore colored beads signifying the loss of a loved one: white beads for the loss of a child, red for a spouse or partner, orange for a sibling. Others released butterflies, symbolizing hope.
But what they all had in common was a will to raise awareness about the only one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States that is not decreasing.
Under cloudy skies and intermittent rain, hundreds of people—men, women and children, young and old—participated in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Miami-Dade County “Out of the Darkness Walk” on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus on October 16, walking a 5-kilometer trail to shed light on what Charles B. Nemeroff, chair of the UM Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, described as “a war we are not winning.”
“It is imperative that we bring all possible and available tools at our disposal to achieve our goal of eliminating this clearly preventable cause of death,” said Nemeroff. “This includes research to identify risk factors, novel treatments, and education of health care professionals and educators, as well as clergy.
“This is a war, not unlike the war on cancer, and at the current time in spite of our best collective efforts, we are not winning,” he added.
Indeed, the numbers are staggering. In 2014, the latest year for which there are accurate figures, there were 42,773 reported suicides in the U.S. Approximately 120 people commit suicide everyday, with a substantial number of those deaths being military veterans.
Sunday’s walk also helped raise much-needed funds to combat the problem, with Team UHealth and Nemeroff being the top fundraisers for the event. Miller School Dean Emeritus Pascal J. Goldschmidt joined Nemeroff in thanking the walkers for their dedication to ending suicide, which has touched so many of them personally.
