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Photo courtesy of "Be the Difference"

‘Be The Difference’ Suicide Prevention Film Offers Santa Clarita Mental Health Resources

The Santa Clarita Valley Suicide Prevention, Postvention and Wellness Committee created “Be the Difference,” an educational resource for friends and family to learn about the potential signs of suicide and mental health issues.

Myles McNamara, the host of the video, partnered with Larry Schallert from the COC Suicide Prevention and Awareness Committee to create the film in the hopes that it could be used to educate both individuals and organizations like school districts, senior centers and churches.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 15 and 34, according to the video.

The video focuses on the signs that a person may be contemplating taking their own life, and what to do if someone recognizes those signs in someone they know.

Officials eventually plan to make this video part of a community awareness campaign alongside the City of Santa Clarita, according to Schallert, assistant director of COC’s Student Health & Wellness Center.

“We want to bring the attention of the community to the issues of suicide and mental health,” said Schallert. “We want to destigmatize the issue, to let people know what the signs are and what the risk factors are.”

In addition to identifying risk factors, two women share their stories of loved ones who committed suicide and what they would have done differently if they could.

McNamara encourages viewers to keep watch over their loved ones who have had issues in the past.

“Check on the strong. Once someone has comtemplated suicide, never assume that they won’t revisit that idea in a future,” said McNamara. Don’t just think that everything is forever rosy behind that facade if they have struggled in the past.”

The three other risk factors include health and environmental factors, such as substance use and access to lethal means, or even exposure to another suicide, as well as historical risk factors such as previous suicide attempts or a family history of self-harm.

One of the women interviewed by McNamara during the video, Ellie Shneir, shared her story of losing a loved one to suicide.

Shneir lost her son, Matthew, to suicide in January 2011, when he was 14 years old.

“I was afraid to ask him about how he was feeling. I was afraid to use the term suicide or suicidal ideation. I guess I was afraid that I was planting a seed,” said Shneir. “That if he wasn’t thinking about it, that talking about it would put that idea in his head. But now I know that’s not true.”

Shneir said that there were many conversations that she and her son could have had, and wonders about what details she could have noticed, if only she knew to look for at the time.

“I wish I had let him know that it was okay not to be okay. I feel like I must have given off a vibe that I couldn’t handle him not being okay, that I needed him to be okay,” said Shneir. “I really  wish I had created an environment where it would be easier for him to let me know that he wasn’t okay.”

Viewers can donate to the memorial fund in his memory at Teen Line, a teen-to-teen hotline that also goes out into the community and does suicide prevention outreach programs.

The second testimonial in the video is not from a parent who lost a child, but instead from a daughter who lost her father to suicide.

Before she graduated high school, MaKayla Cherish Gorski wrote a letter to her father, Robert Hambek, as a part of a self-improvement class project. In the letter, she asked him to stay alive long enough to do three specific things for her: to watch her graduate high school, to watch her graduate college and to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

After a severe alcoholic episode that nearly took his life six months prior to her wedding, Gorski’s father promised to share more about his health status.

“I thought I was doing the right thing by just talking to him and asking him to tell me when he wasn’t okay,” said Gorski. “I was talking to him more often, but I wasn’t asking him, pinpointed, about how he was emotionally doing.”

Gorski’s father appeared to be doing well, and she described him as seemingly happy. But he was also apparently making his goodbyes during the ceremony, according to other wedding guests who were, at the time, baffled by the permanency he implied with his farewells.

“The day after my wedding, we all spent the day together. We had a wonderful time. His family flew home, but he stayed behind to spend the day with my now-husband and I,” said Gorski. “It was wonderful. It was the last time I ever saw him. At the end of breakfast, he stood up, gave my husband a hug and said, ‘She’s your responsibility now. My job is done.’”

Robert would commit suicide soon after; the letter Gorski wrote to him as a teen was found on his bedside table.

Dawnel DeRubeis, a certified life coach and representative of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, reminds viewers that there is no easy way to handle a conversation about suicide with a loved one, but that the mere act of approaching the situation and their feelings can go a long way.

“You do not have to have the perfect words, you just need to listen without judgment,” said DeRubeis, continuing to say that reaching out and expressing concern, showing the person that there is someone who cares about them is “imperative.”

Anyone seeking information about mental health resources available in the Santa Clarita Valley can click here for a list of resources. There are 24-hour phone numbers available. In the event of an emergency, 911 should always be the first call. Those looking to speak with someone can call:

  • 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
  • 1-800-854-7771 for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
  • 661-259-9439 for the SCV Child & Family Center
  • 661-296-4444 for the Way Out Recovery SCV
  • 661-288-4800 for the Santa Clarita Valley Mental Health Center
  • 661-257-9688 for the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Project
  • 800-852-8336 Teen Line Peer Suicide Prevention 6-10 p.m.
    or text TEEN to 839863


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‘Be The Difference’ Suicide Prevention Film Offers Santa Clarita Mental Health Resources

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About Jade Aubuchon

A Santa Clarita native, Jade has spent her whole life involved in community outreach. After graduating from Learning Post High in 2015, she went on to College of the Canyons to pursue a double major in English and Marketing. Jade spent several years as a ballroom dance performer for a local studio and has performed at public and private events throughout Santa Clarita. As KHTS Co-News Director Jade oversees the KHTS news team, which covers all the latest news impacting Santa Clarita. Along with covering and writing her own news stories, Jade can be heard broadcasting the daily local news every weekday morning and afternoon drive-time twice an hour on KHTS 98.1FM and AM-1220. Jade is also instrumental in reporting on-the-scene local emergencies, covering them on-air and via Facebook Live and YouTube. Another dimension to Jade’s on-air skills and writing are her regular political and celebrity interviews, including her bi-monthly interview with our Congressman Mike Garcia and many other local politicians and community leaders.