There are 117 suicides per day, which is one every 13 minutes. On Feb. 28, an event was held in South Dining Hall of California State, Stanislaus (Stan State), by Amber Simmons (senior, Social Work) in regards to the topic of suicide. 
The event was known as the Suicide Prevention Program which Simmons quoted, “a taboo topic in which people do not talk about except behind closed doors.” 
Simmons wanted to start a safe space where people can talk about the topic of suicide.  The National Vital Statistics said that suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ranging from the ages of 10 to 34 years old.  Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students and 80 percent of those students did not have counseling. 
This event was planned at the beginning of the year for Simmons’s accumulative graduate program where the masters students had to do one of three things: a thesis, test, or a project. She chose to do the project on suicide to raise awareness of the topic. The event consisted of four panel members that included Amber herself, Veronica Cheek, who lost her son to suicide, Joella Brewer, who works at a psych facility, and Dan Berkow who is the director of the Psychological Counseling Services at Stan State and has a PHD in Psycology.
During the event, each panel member went to speak about the topic of suicide starting with Amber Simmons who presented the research/facts.  Then came Veronica Cheek who talked about her son’s tragic suicide. Cheek is a survivor who wanted to represent mothers who lost their children to suicide and heard of Amber Simmons event through a friend.
Joella Brewer, who spoke the truth about mental facilities, Joella said that mental facilities “are there to help” and that they “do not take in people immediately if they are feeling suicidal, rather doctors look for signs in a patient if they need to be put in a facility.” Brewer heard of the event through Simmons when she was an intern at the Doctor’s Behavioral Health Center in Modesto. Joella has been working for over a year now as a mental health clinician in the crisis unit. 
Brewer has wanted to help people since she was six years old and has had a fascination with mental health.  Her job helps people that were placed on a 51:50 (a 72 hour hold) for attempting to complete suicide.
“Completing,” suicide was said often during the event instead of, “committing,” suicide for that committing suicide is said like committing a violent crime.
Last but not least was Dan Berkow who answered a couple of questions on the topic of suicide.  One of which being if a child can show the signs of being with a mental illness at an early age.  The answers given was that the signs, “can be tricky to spot”
 Berkow, urges people with suicidal thoughts to realize that such thoughts, “are human and to not feel like you have to keep it to yourself and to be brave enough to ask for help.”