COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – As Suicide Prevention Awareness Month continues, mental health experts emphasize that open, compassionate conversations remain among the most effective tools for saving lives.<\/p>\n
Nicole Deems, executive director of Jill Smith and Associates Counseling, joined WIS to discuss early warning signs, effective intervention strategies, and accessible support systems throughout the Midlands.<\/p>\n
According to public health officials, breaking the silence surrounding mental health struggles can significantly reduce risk by connecting individuals to professional care before a crisis deepens. <\/p>\n
Experts encourage families and friends to listen actively without judgment and to familiarize themselves with local and national crisis hotlines.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org<\/a> to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.<\/p>\n Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with WIS. For more free content like this, subscribe to our email newsletter<\/a>, and download our apps<\/a>. Have feedback that can help us improve? Click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WIS. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – As Suicide Prevention Awareness Month continues, mental health experts emphasize that open, compassionate conversations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[359305,3860,97,20257,359304,259,260,45433,5614,5642],"class_list":["post-850009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-columbia-sc","tag-counseling","tag-health","tag-help","tag-life-saver","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-prevention","tag-south-carolina","tag-suicide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}