Riverside Trauma Center’s Teen Suicide Prevention Project

Needham, MA– Riverside Trauma Center, a service of Riverside Community Care, held a 13 Ways to Take Care of Ourselves and Each Other Video Contest this summer. The goal was to inspire teens to demonstrate healthy ways that high school students manage social and emotional challenges. This effort was in direct response to the fact that suicide is often portrayed in the media as one way young people cope with life’s painful and emotionally distressing issues. We asked teens to provide alternatives to that message by creating short videos that promote healthy ways of coping.

The contest, held June 13, 2017, through July 28, 2017, was open to people who were enrolled in high school as of spring 2017, were 14 years of age or older, and who lived in Massachusetts.

The winners of the contest are as follows:

• Zoey Metzner won first prize of $1,000
• Harrison Davis won second prize of $500
• Erin Olding won honorable mention for $250
• Shauna Contois won honorable mention for $250

All the videos were reviewed by a panel of judges, which included representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention program, a suicide prevention expert from Riverside Trauma Center, a high school video production teacher, and a young adult who is a suicide loss survivor. A portion of the funding for this project came from contributions of family and friends to honor the memory of Holly Parsons.

The winning videos can be seen on Riverside Community Care’s Youtube channel.

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About Riverside Trauma Center

Riverside Trauma Center, a service of Riverside Community Care, promotes resilience and recovery for individuals and communities who are impacted by potentially traumatic events like natural disasters, serious accidents, and suicide by providing training, community outreach, consultation, and counseling. www.riversidetraumacenter.org

About Riverside Community Care

Each year Riverside Community Care provides more than 40,000 adults, children, and adolescents with a broad range of behavioral healthcare human services. We are an award-winning, non-profit organization offering mental healthcare, developmental and brain injury services, youth and early childhood programs, addiction treatment, trauma response, and more. We are here to make a difference in the lives of individuals, families, and communities by delivering compassionate, locally-based, integrated care. www.riversidecc.org