GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Thursday afternoon, the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan hosted an event to raise awareness and share resources for suicide prevention.
David Tucker's brother lost his life to suicide 7 years ago.
"Its hard to wrap your head around it," says Tucker. "What could any of us done different to change the outcome?"
His search for answers brought him to the Mental Health Foundation. The last seven years, he's been at events like Thursday's Stomp Out Stigma walk to help raise awareness.
"With knowledge surrounding mental health disorders comes the confidence then to take action," says Christy Buck, founder of be nice.
The Mental Health Foundation and be nice hosted the event to share resources available to those struggling and remember the people lost.
"We have a host of signs all along the path that represent people that lost their life, lost their battle with depression," she says.
For Tucker, help is as easy as using a bracelet with the be nice logo to start a dialogue.
"If I'm out somewhere and somebody asks me about it I talk to them about it," he says. "I hand them the bracelet and I go home and put a new one on."
A dialogue as simple as that could potentially have saved the lives of those lost.
"They counted, they made a difference in a lot of people's lives," says Buck. "At the time when they were contemplating taking their life, they didn't know that."
You can learn more about be nice here. The number for the National Suicide Hotline is (800) 273-8255.
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