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LIC Citiview Connections Clubhouse hosts open house in honor of Suicide Prevention Month

Citiview Connections Clubhouse, a center for adults with psychiatric disabilities, will host an open house on Thursday, Sept. 27, to highlight success stories and educate the public on the center’s services.

“People should come to see and hear from our membership,” said Russell Roten, director of Citiview Connections Clubhouse. “They don’t need to be so worried and scared of people with mental illness.”

The event coincides with Suicide Prevention Month. Every year, 44,965 people die by suicide and for every reported suicide death, 11.4 people visit a hospital for self-harm related injuries, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Members of the community are welcome to tour the clubhouse from 9 a.m. until the facility closes and from 4 to 6 p.m. visitors are welcome to listen to a set of speakers how will touch on the importance of mental health care and suicide prevention needs.

Some of the speakers include Sara Guerrero, the deputy director of education and community engagement of the Museum of the Moving Image; representatives from The Columbia Lighthouse Project; and representatives from the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

In 2016 the suicide rate in the United States reached a 30-year high with an almost steady increase from 1999 to 2014. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, suicide is increasing in adolescences and young adults and is becoming a leading cause of death for both age groups. Suicide among the middle-aged is also rising.

The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014 with the increases being so widespread that the nation’s suicide rate is 13 to 100,000 people.

Besides the physical threat of mental illness, those suffering from psychiatric disorders still face discrimination in the work place.

According to reporting from HR Magazine, 83 percent of employers worry that someone with a severe mental illness would not be able to cope with the demands of their job; 68 percent worried that someone with a severe mental illness would not fit in with colleagues; and 74 percent believe that an employee with mental illness would need to take above average time off.

Fighting the stigma against mental illness in which is something else that the Clubhouse works and will work toward during the open house.