Gov. Kristi Noem praised the state’s efforts to tackle mental health as she joined the Department of Social Services as a speaker during a recent suicide prevention conference in Sioux Falls.
The title of this year’s suicide prevention conference is “We Need To Talk.” The conference is in it’s third year. The governor was the keynote speaker.
Noem said the conference’s headline is powerful.
“If you’re like me, most of the time, when somebody says to you, ’we need to talk’ you usually get a little bit of a dread feeling in your stomach. Or something you don’t look forward to, or know that it will be a hard conversation or something that will be difficult. The fact that that is the title of this conference today I think is wonderful because we have the opportunity to turn the tide and turn the perspective on what ’we need to talk’ actually means to people. What it means to people, and what that conversation can look like,” said Noem.
Noem shared her personal experience with having a close friend who died by suicide. She said this experience mixed with many others is what propelled the idea of the convention.
“We started this initiative five years ago. To partner with different agencies, six different agencies at the state level. The Department of Health, then Human Services, Department of Ag and Natural Resources, Tribal Affairs, Veterans Affairs, all of them partnering together in a way that we could be more impactful in people’s lives and not just have programs," said Noem. "But have implementation practices that actually make a difference in people’s lives.”
The conference included speakers who shared their personal journey with suicide and mental health. Tom Cruz is a retired Army First Sergeant and suicide attempt survivor.
He shared his real life-experience at the conference with is wife and son by his side.
“We all come to a 'Y.' Every decision you make in your life. Everything you’re going to do is going to come to a 'Y.' Either you’re going to go left and do something or you’re not going to do it,” said Cruz.
If you or a loved one are suffering from suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 anytime for help.
