Clay Goddard and Lauren Stockam both work in Springfield. Goddard is the president for Brightli's Southwest Region and Stockam works in communication and outreach at Springfield-Greene County Health.
They spoke about the “Hey Man, You Good” campaign that’s working to reduce the high rate of male suicide in southwestern Missouri by getting men to open up.
Missouri Health Talks gathers Missourians’ stories of access to healthcare in their own words.
Lauren Stockam: So, we see in our community region, which includes Greene County, Christian County and Webster County – we actually have a 60% higher like overall suicide mortality rate than the rest of the country.
So, that's concerning in itself, and then when we specifically look at the age, sex breakdown, it's those men over 45.
And that was kind of where this communications campaign and Mental Health 417 grew from.
Just wanting to increase community awareness of the issue and of how we can really build routines and build a healthy lifestyle when we're talking about our mental health before we reach that crisis point.
Clay Goddard: Yeah, it’s a pretty valuable campaign, in my opinion. I think we've seen significant reductions in stigma in southwest Missouri, primarily because we're talking about these issues and have actively been talking about them.
"If you're building this into a regular cadence in the conversations you're having with your friends or your family, you can catch it before it reaches that crisis point."Lauren Stockam
Almost everybody you run into has had an experience with someone who is – they've either struggled themselves, or they've had a child with anxiety, depression, or they've, you know, been impacted by a death by suicide.
And what I love about the campaign is we're not saying you need to go to the ER if you're feeling anxious, it's as simple as talking to somebody that you trust.
It can be a buddy, it can be your spouse, it can be a pastor, it can be the crisis line at 988.
As a 50-something-year-old man who lost a colleague and friend who was a 50-something-year-old man to death by suicide – I remain tortured by what did I miss? Did I miss an opportunity to help this man?
And I think the better we can equip men to understand that this doesn't have to be an uncomfortable conversation – that you can ask somebody who even seems fine if they're "good."
That might open a conversation that can save a life and preserve, you know, a father, a brother, a son.
Lauren Stockam: Right.
Clay Goddard: It’s pretty important.
Lauren Stockam: Definitely, and our goal here is obviously not to, you know, burden people with the task of, like, checking on your friends constantly, and like, make sure that they're not going through something terrible.
But like, really, just to foster that practice of – it doesn't have to be this big, serious conversation every time you do it.
If you're building this into a regular cadence in the conversations you're having with your friends or your family, you can catch it before it reaches that crisis point.
Or if it has reached that crisis point, you know, you have the tools and the resources and the words to help them.
