President's Point for January 2019

January is here! This means statistically we the citizens of New Rockford have cleared a hurdle notorious for suicidal behavior. National statistics show more suicides are carried out over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Now why am I writing a Presidents Point on suicide?

Since the winter of 2016, New Rockford City Commission joined with other cities throughout North Dakota to take part in a program titled North Dakota Cares. This program was initiated by the former First Lady of North Dakota Mrs. Dalrymple. The programs intent was to aid in bringing about awareness of suicide amongst the U.S. military. Currently 22 military personnel discharged or still in uniform die by suicide daily throughout the U.S. It was found with North Dakota having two active Air Force installations and numerous Army National Guard units and an Air Guard, suicide prevention options for the service members was not being disseminated. What this North Dakota Cares group does is ensure literature and phone numbers are made available to the public so the military members in that community have access to these help lines, etc.

In the process, the New Rockford City Commission reached out to the Eddy County Community Cares (ECCC) suicide prevention group, which was formed in May 2015. The North Dakota Cares points of contact sends the pamphlets and other information to the City of New Rockford, and the City of New Rockford then passes this information to the ECCC who then, through various suicide awareness and prevention activities ensures this information is displayed and disseminated. The ECCC has flyers and business cards with contact phone numbers displayed at Buck Its, Hanson's, the Eagles, Miller’s Fresh Foods, the Eddy New Rockford Library, CenDak, New Rockford Community Credit Union, Micks 281 gas station and elsewhere throughout the community. Granted the information displayed by the ECCC is for everyone, the North Dakota Cares angle is for the military personnel living in N.D. Regardless, if you need help in dealing with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to someone.

I hope your New Year has started off well and will be a great year for New Rockford!