Safe Communities of Madison-Dane County

September was National Falls Prevention Awareness Month which meant extra community outreach and education about falls prevention in Dane County! In collaboration with community partners, the Falls Free Dane coalition of Safe Communities held two events - one at the Brittingham Apartments and one at YMCA East. We had over 40 participants at Brittingham where one of our Stepping On facilitators, Ellen Hussey, gave a falls prevention talk, as well as a Tai Chi demonstration. Participants enjoyed lunch and left with some helpful community resources. At our annual "Only Leaves Should Fall" event, 75 participants heard from Dr. Zorba Paster about why we should care about falls and effective strategies to prevent a fall. Thanks to UW-Madison Physical Therapy, UW-Madison Pharmacy, and Madison College's Occupational Therapy Assistant programs, participants then progressed through a series of screenings to help them identify their personal fall risk. Participants left the event with community resources and better equipped in knowing how to prevent a fall. Special thanks to all of our community partners for helping to make these events such a huge success! While we may have had additional outreach in September for National Falls Prevention Awareness Month, we should be aware of falls each month and every day of the year! 

Last week, in collaboration with NAMI Dane County and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention - Wisconsin Chapter, we held Better Together: A Suicide Prevention & Recovery Community Event at Goodman Community Center in Madison. This event provided an opportunity to unite community partners from across Dane County, including Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, Journey Mental Health Center, Wisconsin Voices For Recovery, OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center, JustDane, Madison Police Department, I Matter, You Matter, We Matter, Free Movement, Family Services of Wisconsin, MARI, and GRASP, to share resources and hope. The event not only raised awareness for Suicide Prevention Month and celebrated Recovery Month but also created a meaningful space for our community to connect and come together. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to making this impactful event a success!

Safe Communities and the Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC) of Dane County are proud to join in and participate in Construction Suicide Prevention Week. This national initiative spreads the message nationally about the importance of suicide prevention in construction and promotes free resources to people in and around the construction industry to help them start conversations and share information with colleagues who may be struggling. Visit https://lnkd.in/ei6GKtdy to find out more, to learn more about what Safe Communities and the SPHRC can offer to construction companies contact Leah Rolando at lrolando@safercommunity.net.

Check out what we have been up to by reading our September Newsletter! 🎉 https://lnkd.in/gTqUBh2V

Allow us to re-introduce ourselves, the Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC) of Dane County! After listening to feedback from group members, a larger discussion and voting process began to choose a new name that would phase out the original name of the group called the Ending Deaths from Despair Task Force. 50% of group members who voted selected Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition as their top choice! Our mission and goals remain the same. We are a community-based coalition bringing together friends, families, neighbors, and professional stakeholders to organize and mobilize to reduce preventable deaths by suicide, opiate, and alcohol use in Dane County. We do so through the following strategies: -Increase protective factors -Reduce lethal risk of suicide and overdose -Increase access to care -Implement best practices for treatment in health care systems -Use data to inform and evaluate efforts We know that effective suicide prevention requires a comprehensive public health approach that addresses social determinants of health beyond a single focus on mental health. Suicide prevention strategies are being implemented across Dane County in a variety of sectors including schools, community centers, health care systems, gun shops, and more. Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. It is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs. In Dane County, we continue to expand our harm reduction and overdose prevention efforts by working alongside people in recovery and who have direct lived/living experience with substance use. "Deaths of despair" remains an important framing that urges us to pay attention to and address the current economic system in the U.S., that enables a fragmented social safety net, causing increases in suicide, drug overdose, and deaths from alcohol related diseases among middle-aged and older white working class Americans. While the older "deaths of despair" data pointed to that demographic, in recent years, rates are increasing disproportionately among Indigenous (Native American and Alaska Native) and Black Americans. We are committed to applying data-driven strategies and updating our language as we learn more from national best practices and people with direct lived experience here in our community. The Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC) of Dane County is co-chaired by Leah Rolando with Safe Communities and Kailey Peterson with Dane County Emergency Management. The Steering Committee also includes Julia Olsen and Aurielle Smith (Public Health Madison Dane County), Jim Van Den Brandt, Todd Campbell, and Carrie Simon (Dane County Department of Human Services), Carrie Meier (Dane County Emergency Management), and Cheryl Wittke (Safe Communities). To learn more contact Leah Rolando at lrolando@safercommunity.net.

We're #hiring a new Programs Assistant in Madison, Wisconsin. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Love having National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) as a partner for CHJ’s COSSUP Deflection TA Center! The expertise they bring to EMS-led deflection is critical to growing knowledge of the field and the breadth of first responder deflection opportunities! #COSSUP #deflection Mary Hedges Dia Gainor

This Saturday, October 28, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. When old medications are flushed they end up in the water cycle and ultimately can end up in drinking water downstream as it is near impossible to treat out of our water. Stop this pollution at the source by properly disposing of medications in one of the following ways: 🍃MedDrop 🍃Local Pharmacies 🍃Drug Take-Back Days As part of Drug Take Back Day, Safe Communities of Madison-Dane County announced they are hosting 18 collection sites around the county to take unwanted, expired or unused drugs. Read the list of drop-off sites at https://ow.ly/6EFM50Q0N6l