L.E.T.S Save Lives: A Message of Hope and Perseverance for the Black Community

Within the Black and African American Community, faith is a pillar that upholds our families and is essential to our ability to sustain our culture and identity. It is through shared tales of resilience, courage, and determination related to faith that the legacies of our ancestors stand the test of time. Growing up in the small town of Marion, South Carolina, which at the time had a population fewer than 7,000, this faith tradition was embedded for me at an early age.

While I value the strength which can be drawn from faith, I also believe that cultural norms associated with faith can sometimes contribute to the stigma still often felt around conversations involving mental health and suicide. Often, when it comes to mental health, we are quickly reminded to keep our feelings to ourselves: to not let the truth escape the boundaries of family and to instead lean solely on our faith. It is vital we understand there are matters that require action and support, and that this can happen alongside our faith. I see an opportunity to build upon the wonderful traditions and principles of faith in helping to reshape the conversations of mental health and suicide prevention for our Black communities.

As a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, we uphold our cardinal principles of manhood, scholarship, perseverance, and uplift upon the foundation that was created by four great young men on the campus of Howard University on November 17, 1911. We recently took our own collective stand against the stigma associated with mental health and launched the Brother, You’re on My Mind Initiative. Through this collaborative partnership with the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), we focused on the importance of educating our communities on the impacts of depression and stress, while ensuring we align ourselves with organizations who shared the same mission focus.

This then led to the start of my relationship with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). I envisioned a terrific opportunity for our fraternity to become a key conduit in helping bring AFSP’s great resources to our Black communities. By supporting AFSP efforts such as the Out of the Darkness Walks and education programs, I immediately recognized how pivotal a role this could play in helping to shape conversations around mental health in our Black communities. 

I was excited to support the pilot launch of AFSP’s newest educational program L.E.T.S. Save Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention for Black and African American Communities. Built on the foundation of listening, empathy, trust, and support (hence the acronym L.E.T.S.), this program is helping to usher in a narrative change within our Black communities. The stigma associated with mental health has placed an enormous shadow over conversations around suicide within the Black community. The mere thought of it has often prompted diversions to other topics or revealed the mistaken belief that suicide has never been a problem in the community historically. Our hesitancy in discussing issues of mental health was the “elephant in the room” that we accepted and enabled to exist.

What makes L.E.T.S. Save Lives such a vital program is that it helps to foster new conversations about mental health and suicide prevention for the Black community. From the creators of the content to the presentation’s imagery, this program has been created by and for Black people and resonates in a unique way with its audience. What I appreciate most is that it takes the audience on a journey that begins with an overview of the historical context of mental health within the Black community and proceeds to shed light on key areas ranging from risk factors to crisis recognition, enabling participants to gain a better understanding of how to connect to resources. As an ally of AFSP, I have had the privilege of learning why AFSP’s mission — to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide — is so critical for our communities. I recognize how powerful connections can be made between individuals, and how this can inspire conversations that can be lifesaving.

Recently, as I was sitting in a fraternity meeting, a fellow brother asked me about my connection to AFSP’s mission. I proceeded to share about the experiences I observed of family, friends, and colleagues who had been directly and indirectly impacted by suicide, as well as those who had contended with their own respective mental health challenges.

I explained how experiencing this had inspired a need for me to be a part of the efforts to make the uncomfortable comfortable when talking about mental health and suicide. Acknowledging this, my brother nodded his head and then found comfort in sharing with me about his own journey, and how some of these very same struggles brought him to a low point in his life where he had contemplated taking his own life.

I would be lying if I said that hearing this testimony didn’t catch me off guard. Like countless individuals who walk amongst us daily, my fraternal brother had been suffering in darkness, without having realized there are resources available to support him. I expressed in that moment not only how courageous he was in his transparency, but reassured him he was not alone, and that I would be there for him.

When I look back on all my experiences that have helped me arrive at this stage, I am reminded it takes time to acquire the knowledge and courage to find comfort within an uncomfortable subject. As we prepare to acknowledge National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July, it’s comforting to have tailored, culturally competent educational programming such as L.E.T.S. Save Lives to help reinforce the importance of why it is vital to encourage conversations about mental health and suicide prevention in the Black community. These efforts help highlight the magnitude of the work that is needed to shift the dialogue on mental health and suicide so that we are conducting them in effective ways.

The opportunities are limitless. I am a firm believer that the paradigms of old are shifting and AFSP will continue to advance its strategies in groundbreaking ways. It’s a privilege to be a contributor to this process and it’s an honor to be a conduit to programs like L.E.T.S. Save Lives to deliver a message of hope and perseverance.

Learn more about L.E.T.S. Save Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention for Black and African American Communities.