The enterprise package focused around the public health issue of suicide. A recent and shocking suicide by a prominent community member raised questions about mental health, how to recognize the need for help in yourself or others, and how to go about getting help from medical professionals. The package includes four parts, including the main story about how two local families cope with the loss of a loved one to suicide and the similarities despite the deaths being separated by more than a dozen years. One sidebar is about local educational efforts to raise awareness among youth about suicide through the Michigan Yellow Ribbon organization, with other sidebars about actual suicide statistics across the region and finally, how to access local resources for help with mental health. The only findings are that there are no real trends in suicide rates in our small, regional area. Instead, an attempted or completed suicide seems to be an intensely personal internal struggle that often requires outside help to overcome. What stands out the most is the negative stigma attached to mental health care and those to seek it out or require that type of health care.
