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Tolland mother marks Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Journal Inquirer - 9/8/2021

Sep. 8—TOLLAND — For mothers like Rita Malenczyk, it is important to recognize September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Her son, former Tolland High School-E.O. Smith High School hockey star Nicholas Mayer, died by suicide in January 2019 after a battle with bipolar disorder. Mayer scored the game-winning goal in the 2015 state championship.

"He had some of the best care in the state, he had therapy and he still didn't make it," Malenczyk said. She thinks more can be done to prevent future suicides in Connecticut, including expanding access to mental health care for more people.

"We should expand the social safety net for people," Malencyzk said, adding that the Mental Health Parity Act, signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2019 to ensure insurance coverage for mental health and substance abuse conditions just like other illnesses, is a good start.

Ann Dagle, co-founder and president of the Brian Dagle Foundation, works with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and advocates for suicide prevention effort.

Dagle, who also lost her son, Brian Dagle, to suicide in 2011, is currently contributing to a bill that would set up a 988 hotline in Connecticut in time for July 2022. By this date, it will be the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This number would replace the 211 number that currently serves as Connecticut's suicide lifeline.

"Having a number easy to remember will increase access for people, and it will make people aware of how big of a problem this is," Malenczyk said.

Dagle also is working to get more state funding for suicide prevention efforts, as well as a bill that would have both public and private high schools across the state put the current Connecticut suicide lifeline on school IDs. According to her, this bill has pushback from the state Department of Education.

"I feel that I have to be a voice for people who don't have a voice anymore," Dagle said.

One of the successful bills she was involved with was Senate Bill 2, which passed in June and expands mental health services for students by establishing a youth suicide prevention training program in local and district health departments. The Office of the Child Advocate and Youth Suicide Advisory Board will administer these programs once every three years starting next July.

"We're getting there. Senators and representatives are finally having this conversation," Dagle said, noting that as little as three years ago there were no bills raised to address suicide prevention. Now, Dagle said more than 15 bills are in the process of being introduced.

In Tolland, mental health is also being emphasized on a more local level. The town formed a mental health and substance abuse task force in May.

Town Councilman John Reagan said the purpose of the task force is to assess the town's resources and provide recommendations to the council about what should be done to help mental health. So far though, the task force has not discussed suicide prevention.

"We definitely should be talking about suicide prevention, being that it is suicide prevention month," Reagan said.

On average, one person died by suicide every 21 hours in Connecticut in 2018 according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It is the second-leading cause of death for ages 10-34. Last year alone, more than 300 people died by suicide according to the state chief medical examiner's office.

Ben covers Coventry and Tolland for the Journal Inquirer.

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