{"id":28503,"date":"2015-10-20T08:01:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T15:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/activist-hopes-convention-suicide-leads-to-more-awareness\/"},"modified":"2015-10-20T08:01:47","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T15:01:47","slug":"activist-hopes-convention-suicide-leads-to-more-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/activist-hopes-convention-suicide-leads-to-more-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist hopes convention suicide leads to more awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANCHORAGE \u2014<\/strong> An Alaska suicide-prevention activist is hoping a man\u2019s very public suicide at an Alaska Native conference will propel people across the state to reach out to others who may be hurting, she said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Barbara Franks said it may never be known what led a man to jump three floors to his death Saturday inside the Dena\u2019ina Convention Center at the close of the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage. Franks wonders how long he was suffering to come to that point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow many times was he trying to talk to someone?\u201d she said. Suicide is personal to Franks, a Tlingit woman who has worked to help others since her 23-year-old son took his own life nearly 18 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s death of a 49-year-old man at Alaska\u2019s largest yearly gathering of indigenous people comes as Alaska Natives grapple with disproportionately high rates of suicide, including the recent back-to-back suicides of four young adults in the western Alaska village of Hooper Bay. Regarding the Anchorage convention death, police spokeswoman Anita Shell said there was no indication a suicide note was left by the man, whose body was sent to the state medical examiner\u2019s office for an autopsy.<\/p>\n<p>AFN officials are still trying to comprehend what happened and working through their shock, according to spokesman Ben Mallott. Officials will determine the next steps to take within a week, he said.<\/p>\n<p>During last week\u2019s convention, the Hooper Bay deaths were noted by speakers, including Gov. Bill Walker, who said nothing causes him greater concern than these suicides among young Alaskans. On Friday, Walker also joined 2011 Iditarod champion John Baker on stage to announce a new statewide initiative calling for individuals to volunteer as ambassadors in their own communities to promote healing from suicides, abuse and neglect.<\/p>\n<p>Franks said she supports the initiative, which is called \u201cAlaskans Changing Together\u201d and run by Baker\u2019s fiancee, Katherine Keith. Franks believes the involvement of community members can go a long way to helping vulnerable individuals. Ambassadors could work as a sort of neighborhood watch for suicide prevention \u2014with locals also acting as surrogate family members for those who need them, according to Franks, who said she is glad to see that effort backed by Baker, an Inupiat Eskimo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now we need a hero,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>About 30 people from six communities, including Anchorage, have signed up to be ambassadors so far, Keith said. She expects to see increasing traffic on the initiative website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to really focus on growing the positives in people\u2019s lives,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t necessarily change what happened, but we can change things in our own lives, and we can take action in our lives and in the lives of those around us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walker\u2019s office declined to comment Monday on Saturday\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always unfortunate when an Alaskan\u2019s life is cut short,\u201d Walker spokeswoman Katie Marquette wrote in an email. \u201cHowever until we have more information about what happened on Saturday afternoon, it is inappropriate for the Governor\u2019s office to comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the recent rash of suicides, state officials plan to meet this week with tribal and social service partners to review existing suicide prevention resources, statewide suicide-prevention coordinator James Gallanos said.<\/p>\n<p\/>\n<p>Online: Alaskanschangingtogether.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANCHORAGE \u2014 An Alaska suicide-prevention activist is hoping a man\u2019s very public suicide at an Alaska Native conference will propel people across the state to reach out to others who may be hurting, she said Monday. Barbara Franks said it may never be known what led a man to jump three floors to his death [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28503"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}