Suicide is on the rise in northeast Iowa and, to help combat that trend, Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health in Decorah is hosting its 10th Annual Step Up Reach Out Walk this Saturday, Sept. 21, in the facility’s parking lot at 905 Montgomery St.
Retired NEIBH Executive Director Marcia Oltrogge recalled she didn’t expect more than 74 people to attend the inaugural Step Up Reach Out Walk, but about 350 survivors participated. Since then, she said crowd size ranges between 250 and 350 people, and the event is also stroller and dog friendly.
The event will begin with participant registration at 9 a.m., which will be followed by a brief presentation by keynote speaker Ryan Nesbit, co-founder of Alive and Running Iowa, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention. After Nesbit’s presentation, organizers will begin the walk with a roll call of submitted names recognizing persons lost to suicide.
“The event starts out kind of solemnly, but it also has an under-tone of hope,” said retired NEIBH Executive Director Marcia Oltrogge. “There are lots of tears, but there is also a lot of laughter from the people connecting or from those who haven’t seen each other since the last walk.”
Oltrogge said walkers will follow the bike trail out to the fish hatchery, but attendees don’t need to walk to participate. Tents, tables and chairs will be available in NEIBH’s parking lot, which will also feature a memory wall, on which attendees are welcome to place photos and other mementos to honor their loved ones. Several raffles will also be held, with one of the grand prizes being a football autographed by local professional football player Josey Jewell.
“Teams will have t-shirts made up with photos, names and sayings on them,” Oltrogge said. “We have beaded necklaces, and the beads are color-coded to show whether you lost a parent, a friend, a sibling or maybe someone in the military.”
A free-will donation is encouraged, and all proceeds from the event will go to purchasing a variety of suicide awareness resources in NEIBH’s five-county region, such as QPR — Question, Persuade, Refer — training.
“QPR is an evidence-based training program for non-professional individuals in the community on how to intervene if their friends or loved ones are having any kind of suicidal thoughts,” said Oltrogge’s successor at NEIBH, Charlie Woodcock. “There’s a lot of stigma involved in suicide, and people don’t talk about it or how they feel. So, this approach helps people talk about it. QPR is really one of the better programs, because it’s not focused on professionals but on people in the community in general.”
Oltrogge said those interested in the training may contact her directly.
“We’ve done it for one group that had grandmothers, mothers and daughters,” she said. “Another group a few years ago was barbers, beauticians and bartenders. We’ve trained several thousand people in QPR in our five-county area over the years — all at no cost to the individual. You never know when someone’s going to tell you they’re thinking about suicide, so the idea is the more community members we can train, the better the chance that they will talk to someone who can help them.”
Woodcock and Oltrogge agreed suicide can be devastating because of all the unanswered questions surrounding the loss.
“Research shows that when people make the decision, it’s a very short time span,” Oltrogge said. “So, your chance of intervening in that time is difficult.”
But, Woodcock said, if someone can intervene, the chances of survival greatly increase. He added that surviving loved ones should also seek help in dealing with their loss.
“We’re always pondering if we could have done something,” he said. “Suicide doesn’t just affect the individual. It affects the family, and it’s important that they seek out help too, because it’s something they need to process.”
For information, visit the event’s Facebook page or call 563-382-3649.
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