SMHAI is an organization founded by survivors left behind after suicide.
They contacted other survivors, mental health professionals, and associates to form our organization.

All of us agree that suicide and the stigma of suicide needs to be addressed on a global format in order to bring about change and hopefully, a reduction in the overall suicide rates.

The head of our Mental Health Division, Dr. Roerich, has done extensive research and developed a new diagnostic tool for depression, stress levels and possible suicidal ideation. You can find out more about this by visiting the links below his picture on the "Professionals" page of our website.

Ann Gay, the Director of our Survivors Division, is a survivor. She lost her 16 year old son, Wayne, to suicide. She is very active in suicide prevention, education, and awareness.

Jan Andesen, Ann's Assistant, is a survivor and the owner of the Child Suicide website. She lost her precious son Kristian to suicide. She works hard through all types of media to promote prevention, education, and awareness. She has been a guest on some of Britain's talk shows, dealing with suicide.

Janet Dacombe is Multiple Loss Leader. Janet is from the UK and has lost three family members to suicide. She is active in helping SMHAI open the eyes of the world to suicide.

The original founding members are: Brenda Reeves and 2 people who wish to remain anonymous.

What We Do:

• Promote, assist, and monitor the progress of suicide prevention activities on an international scale.
• Provide the most comprehensive suicide prevention information and resources.
• Promote the collection of complete, up-to-date, international data on issues of suicide and suicidal behavior.
• Disseminate through available means, international data on issues of suicide as it becomes available.
• Promote and advocate insurance equality for all who need or use mental health services. We use letter writing campaigns and other means to force insurance companies to treat mental health services equal to any other medical services in which they provide converage.
• Create opportunities for bringing people together, professionals with professionals, survivors with survivors, and etc., to exchange knowledge and experiences. This may be provided in the form conferences, public meetings, retreats, exhibitions, special events, online groups, and other means deemed appropriate.
• Provide mental health and suicide survivor expertise for the development of guidelines for suicide prevention plans and programs.
• Improve the supply of appropriate and complete information to all government entities, relevant international organizations, media, groups and the general public on issues of suicide and mental health.
• Encourage government agencies, policy makers, community leaders, opinion leaders, and all forms of media to assess the impact of their acitivities on the problem of suicidal behavior and suicide prevention.
• Promote and assist the establishment of national organizations for suicide prevention.
• Promote and assist suicide and suicide prevention awareness in an attempt to end the stigma associated with this tragedy.
• Provide the most comprehensive mental health information center and resources available. This will be done with the assistance of our Research Division.
• Promote and assist mental health awareness to educate the public of this treatable disease. This may be done through media presentations, public meetings, open lectures, and other means.
• Provide the most comprehensive suicide survivor information center and resources. Allowing survivors to interact and participate as a means to promote healing as they travel their suicide grief journey.
• Provide the most comprehensive suicide attempters information center and resources. Allowing suicide attempters to interact and participate as they deal with their daily struggles.
• Provide the most comprehensive self-injurers information center and resources. Allowing self-injurers to interact and participate as they attempt to conquer thier self-injurous behavior.
• Provide information to and assist media with appropriate reporting of suicide and mental health issues.

SMHAI Medical Statement:

We do not offer mental health counseling or advice nor do we have an immediate crisis line available.

The information provided on SMHAI is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician.

Information provided here is for educational, awareness and prevention purposes.

About the documentation on our site...

We have used many sources of information to produce this site.
There are many personal items in the Suicide Survivors section in which were submitted by individual owners.
Content in which is not specified to have a owner or copyright, was written by and belongs to SMHAI. Every effort has been made to give credit where credit is due.

Most of the statistical information on our site has been collected from the World Health Organization (WHO), unless otherwise noted. You may find other information at the WHO website located at the WHO Website.

The Mental Health information from WHO originated from the following links on their site.

http://www.who.int/mental_health/en/
http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/545.pdf

And from a brochure on their site:

Prevention and Promotion Brochure
WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health.
1.Mental health 2.Mental disorders – prevention and control 3. Health promotion 4. Evidence-based medicine 5.World Health
Organization I.WHO Meeting on Evidence for Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health:
Conceptual and Measurement Issues
(2001: Geneva, Switzerland)
ISBN 92 4 156216 1 (NLM classification: WM 31.5)
© World Health Organization 2002
All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from Marketing and Dissemination, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel: +41 22 791 2476; fax: +41 22 791 4857; email: bookorders@ who.int).
Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications – whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution – should be addressed to Publications, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; email: permissions@who.int).
The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.
Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters.
The World Health Organization does not warrant that the information contained in this publication is complete and correct and shall not be liable for any damages incurred as a result of its use.
Printed in France
For further details on this project, please contact:
Dr. Shekhar Saxena
Coordinator
Mental Health: Evidence and Research
Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20, CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland
Tel: + 4122 791 36 25, Fax: + 4122 791 41 60, Email: saxenas@who.int

Suicide information from WHO originated from the following links on their site.

main info = http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/background/en/ Background of SUPRE ERRATUM
Maternal mortality at the end of a decade: signs of progress? Carla Abou Zahr & Tessa Wardlaw (pp. 561–568).
On page 565 of Vol. 79, No. 6, first column, lines 15–19, ‘‘In Egypt, for example, coverage at delivery increased from 35% to 61% over the period 1988–99. In Indonesia, the percentage of deliveries assisted by a skilled attendant increased from 36% in 1997 to 56% in 1999.’’ should read ‘‘In Egypt, for example, coverage at delivery increased from 35% to 61% over the period 1988–2000. In Indonesia, the percentage of deliveries assisted by a skilled attendant increased from 36% in 1987 to 56% in 1999.’’

And from the following links:

Preventing Suicide: a resource for general physicians

Preventing Suicide: a resource for media professionals

Preventing Suicide: a resource for teachers and other school staff

Preventing Suicide: a resource for primary health care workers

Preventing Suicide: a resource for prison officers

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Terms of Use

SMHAI is an interactive on-line service operated by SMHAI members, on the Internet, consisting of free information services and content provided by several resources, and other third parties.

All visitors shall be responsible for obtaining and maintaining all telephone, computer hardware and other equipment needed for access to and the use of SMHAI and all charges related to it.

Visitors shall not post or transmit through SMHAI, any material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, profane or otherwise objectionable, which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, cause civil liability or otherwise violate any law.

SMHAI contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information, such as, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound. The entire contents of SMHAI are copyrighted as a collective work under the United States copyright laws. SMHAI owns a copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, and in the content original to it. Visitors may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create like works, or exploit in any way, any of the content, in whole or in part. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, publication or commercial exploitation of downloaded material will be permitted without the express permission of SMHAI and the copyright owner. In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution or publication of copyrighted material, no changes in or deletion of author, trademark or copyright notice shall be made. Visitors acknowledge that they do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading copyrighted material.

Visitors shall not upload, post or otherwise make available on SMHAI any material protected by copyright, trademark or proprietary right without the express permission of the owner of the copyright, trademark or proprietary right and the burden of determining that any material is not protected by copyright rests with Visitor. Visitors shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any copyright infringement, proprietary rights, or any harm resulting from such a submission. By submitting material to any public area of SMHAI, Visitors automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such material has expressly granted SMHAI without royalty, the perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate and distribute such material - in whole or in part - worldwide - to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed for the full term of any copyright that might exist in such material. Visitors hereby grant SMHAI the right to edit, copy, publish and distribute any material made available on the SMHAI website by them. The submissions become a part of the collection and SMHAI will use their own discretion in removal of any part of any collection for any reason other than copyright infringement by the person who submitted the item.

The above provisions are for the benefit of SMHAI, their subsidiaries, affiliates and any third party content providers and licensors and each shall have the right to assert and enforce such provisions directly or on their own behalf.

Disclaimer of Warranty; Limitation of Liability

Visitors expressly agree that the use of SMHAI is at the vistor's own risk. Neither SMHAI, their affiliates nor any other representatives, agents or third party providers warrant that SMHAI will be error free or uninterrupted. There is no warranty as to results that may be obtained using our website or as to the reliability or accuracy or the content of the information provided.

In no event will SMHAI, or any person or entity involved in creating, producing or distributing SMHAI or it's included information, be liable for ANY damages, including but nor limited to, direct or indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages due to use of - or inabaility to use SMHAI.

SMHAI, nor our affiliates and information providers shall be liable - regardless of the cause or duration for any inaccuracies, errors, omissions, unauthenticity or untimeliness of - the information contained on the SMHAI website. We are not responsible for any claims or losses. None of the parties shall be liable for any 3rd party claims or losses - including but not limited to, lost profits or punitive or consequential damages. Neither, SMHAI, Nor our affiliates and information providers guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the information provided.

SMHAI is provided - as is - and is without warranties of any kind, either implied or expressed, of fitness or merchantability for any particular purpose other than those implied and incapable of exclusion, modification or restriction under the law.

SMAHI Logos are trademarks logos are trademarks of SMHAI. All rights reserved. All other trademarks on SMAHI's website are the property of their respective owners.

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SMHAI Privacy Policy

SMHAI Privacy Policy notices are posted in areas which are related to areas of our site where information is offered by our visitors. In case you have missed it, it is as follows:

SMHAI web site does not use cookies, beacons, Java, JavaScript, or any other means to gather personal information. Personal information is gathered only by using the email links and submission forms on this site, and is submitted voluntarily, and is collected only for the purpose of gathering the information as is stated on each form. The information submitted will NEVER be sold or otherwise disclosed to third parties without permission.

To assure Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (C.O.P.P.A.) compliance and the viewing guidelines of SMHAI, you must be age 13 or older to submit items to SMHAI in which requires sharing of your personal information.

Web sites that are linked to SMHAI's site may not follow these practices. We strongly encourage you to check each sites' privacy policies before submitting any personal information to these sites. SMHAI is not responsible for activities in which are associated with any site links provided. You should use your best judgment in dealing with linked sites.

SMHAI works with a third party that collects traffic data from our site. This data may include IP addresses and referring pages, and is used in order to determine traffic to our site and to determine ways in which we may improve the site. This data is not used to determine the identities of those visiting the site or for any other purpose.


SMHIA Funding

SMHAI is funded by private donations.
Up to this point, we have received no government monies.


Advertising Policy

SMHAI accepts corporate sponsorships. SMHAI does not display advertisements, pop up ads, or advertising banners on our site. However, corporate sponsors will be acknowledged on our "Donations" page.

In the Survivors Section - there may be recommendations of places that can help survivors create their special memorials/tributes of/to their loved one's. These are completely editorial and informative in nature and are not provided as a means to bring business to them. They are done in an effort to inform survivors of options and to give them ideas as to special things they can do to memorialize the one they have lost. These recommendations are not placed by the businesses but by survivors who have nothing to gain from their recommendation of a particular item or business.
There are also listings of healing materials such as CD's that can not be purchased in stores. They are only available on the Internet. They are listed to aid our visitors on their grief journey.

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Site launched July 01, 2004.