To conclude the second annual Texas A&M University Mental Health and Suicide Awareness Week, A&M University Health Services and the University Police Department held a presentation Thursday on the importance of securing weapons and dangerous drugs.
The week-long awareness program debuted last year to combat social stigma related to mental health and treatment, the university said. To build a safer community, we’ve added an Access to Lethal Means Seminar to this year’s awareness campaign. As part of the program, UPD is now offering free gun locks to those who request them.
Megan McCarty, a certified counselor, supervisor and mental health co-responder with UPD, opened her presentation by discussing the importance of limiting access to weapons to people who may be facing a mental health crisis. Discussed.
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“Specifically, what this means is that we’re trying to help people who are at risk of suicide and keep their environment safe,” McCarty said. “There’s a good chance you’ll be someone’s particular support system. You need to know what you can do in those situations.”
McCarty said safety plans are essential to ensure someone has the resources they need in the event of a crisis. As the likelihood of self-harm increases, many steps in the process are escalated.
“The most important step is making sure their environment is safe and that they have contacts of people they can reach out to,” she said. “Studies have proven that suicide risk increases or decreases. …Some of the most identified ways that people engage in suicide are drug overdoses and the use of firearms. We’re going to focus specifically on these two and discuss the safety aspects of these two measures.”
Yolanda Hickman, an officer with the UPD Community Services Division, spoke about the importance of properly securing firearms for friends and family members who may be in crisis.
“We will never ask you to put your safety at risk in this case,” Hickman said. “If you feel unwell, please call us immediately. Just because we are called to the scene does not necessarily mean someone will be sent to jail. We’re trained to deal with them with weapons, so that’s kind of our specialty.”
Hickman said there are two common types of gun locks: one that snakes out of the bottom of the gun through an open chamber, and one that simply restricts the trigger. .
“This is a recommended device because it would be very difficult for someone to try to use this,” Hickman said of the locks, which cannot even be loaded into a gun. “It will prevent anything from being loaded into the weapon as ammunition and it will prevent anything from getting inside.” [the chamber]”
Michael Anthony, chief pharmacist at A&M Beutel Health Center, said people should be careful about disposing of unused medications because they are often more readily available.
“Last year, approximately 6.3 billion prescriptions were written in the United States,” Anthony said. “Of those, 191 million were for opioids. 111,000 people died from overdose, 92% of which were preventable.”
Anthony says there’s no point in keeping unused medications, and many pharmacies allow you to dispose of unwanted medications for free.
“We live in such a litigious society, so it’s also a liability issue,” he says. “It used to be that if someone stole your medication and took it to a party, and someone else got it and overdosed, it was the person who stole it and gave it to you that caused the problem. Because it was not protected, it returned to its original hands.”
A list of nearby locations offering year-round drug drop-off locations can be found on the U.S. Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration website.
Both A&M University Health Services and UPD also urge anyone in crisis to call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which will launch nationwide in July 2022. said.
