To start off Mental Health Awareness month I attended a screening of the film Suicide: The Ripple Effect. The film is a documentary that explains the events and mind frame that led to Kevin Hines—known widely as “The Golden Gate Jumper”—to attempt death by suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The film focuses on Kevin’s life, advocacy, and influence after surviving such an attempt and the healing process that followed.
As someone who is immersed in ACEs science, I could not help but to wonder about Kevin’s traumatic history as I watched the film. This is largely because I know that people with an ACE score of four or more are over 1,100 times more likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime. Therefore, it was not surprising when Kevin revealed his experience with ACEs later in the film. A history spanning from neglect and exposure to substances to removal from the home and the traumatic loss of loved ones.
Although ACEs did have a role in Kevin’s attempted death by suicide, instead of focusing on prevention through risk reduction, the film focuses on prevention through a different lens. Prevention through hope and resiliency. Using Public Health framework to establish approaches to build hope and resiliency in communities. What stands out to me about this approach is the role of collaborative efforts across systems. An integral part in establishing hope and resiliency back into the life of Kevin and mirrors strategies discussed in the film being used by Australian leaders to tackle the issue of suicide.
The film’s title, The Ripple Effect not only describes the need for preventative approaches to reduce the ripples of sadness and anger created within families and friends after someone attempts or commits suicide. It also explains the ripples of change that occurs in communities and entire populations when cross-system approaches are used to tackle public health issues like ACEs and suicide.
As a team member of Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence, a program largely focused on upstream cross-system approaches to reducing the impact of trauma on communities, I found the emphasis on this type of approach in the film refreshing.
If you are in the area and are interested in seeing, Suicide: The Ripple Effect yourself, the Mental Health Association of Cleveland County will be hosting another free screening of the film Thursday, May 10th at the AMC Classic Shelby 10 in Shelby, NC.
I encourage you to go and share your feedback with us at Benchmarks’ PFE of North Carolina on our community page!
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