A full year after four Orange County teens took their lives over a three-week period, the Board of Supervisors has decided to give $600,000 to create a suicide prevention program.
Mind you, several families who lost children to suicide courageously and selflessly agreed to go public for a three-part series I wrote last March about this national epidemic that takes 6,000 lives a year among people age 10 to 24.
A series of organizations have battled suicide for years. Among the most storied is an Orange County nonprofit called Waymakers. For more than four decades, the group has provided teens with help and hope.
The first thing you notice in the Waymakers living room in Laguna Beach (the home was paid off through grants and donations years ago) is an array of musical instruments. There’s an upright piano, four folk guitars, seven ukuleles.
The second thing you notice about the Waymakers living room is the plethora of board games. That’s right, board games.
There are magazines and books at Waymakers, but there are no video games. There are movies on Friday and Saturday nights, but there is no other television. There are plenty of oranges, bananas, apples, but there are no sugar-packed munchies.
Challenges the kids face range from chemical imbalances in the brain to mood disorders to childhood trauma.
To read more of David Whiting's article, please click here.
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