Split the Plate is one of UUCW’s programs of outreach and generosity. Each month we give half of all undesignated offering monies to a non-profit organization as a way to help us live our Unitarian Universalist values and serve our community.
Prevent Suicide Greater Milwaukee (PSGM) is an all-volunteer coalition whose mission is to promote suicide prevention by providing education, increasing awareness, and facilitating community collaboration. Their Coalition Partners represent local agencies and organizations as well as the general community.
Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. In 2017, over 47,000 Americans took their own lives. In Milwaukee County, the number was 154 and in Waukesha County, 60. Suicide was the second leading cause of death among Wisconsin adolescents (10-19 years of age) in 2017.
Since 2010, PSGM has collaborated with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office to track deaths from suicide in Milwaukee County, including demographics and means of death of persons who have died by suicide. They have supported similar data reports in Waukesha County.
PSGM’s policy priorities focus on school-based suicide prevention programming, reducing access to lethal means for those acutely at risk for suicide, providing continuing professional education to mental health practitioners, and prioritizing populations at elevated risk.
In its educational initiatives, PSGM employs evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention and aligns its strategies with best practices put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and other national leaders in suicide prevention. In 2018, PSGM gave 93 suicide prevention training sessions reaching over 1900 persons. 2019 is on track to end with similar numbers.
For more information, see Prevent Suicide Greater Milwaukee. For more information about Split the Plate, contact the Committee Chair, Kathy Herrewig.
