The Gulf Coast Partnership has been hosting a 7 week Community Case Management Training Series in an effort to provide our community partners with the tools they need to effectively assist our most vulnerable homeless residents exit out of homelessness and enter into housing. Today, we were honored to have Kim Sanderson, LMHC, of Charlotte Behavioral Health Care (CBHC), join us for a very special presentation. Ms. Sanderson is the Director of Mental Health and Children’s Substance Services at CBHC and spends countless hours out in the community helping to bring awareness and dispel the myths and stigmas associated with suicide. Ms. Sanderson spends a great deal of her time at our local public schools, helping to teach younger generations how to identify when someone is at risk of suicide, in an effort to prevent and end suicide amongst youth in our community. It is through this outreach effort that CBHC and Ms. Sanderson, have been able to decrease the number of teen suicides in Charlotte County over the last three years. Ms. Sanderson reported that we are starting to see an increase in suicide amongst our elderly population, which is alarming to those working to serve our older chronically homeless and homeless veteran populations, as being homeless increases risk factors due to not having adequate access to basic needs.
