Hope for the Holidays

Over the holiday weekend there have been several themes running through my social media feed.

Food
Family
Holiday Shopping
Charitable Donations
Election Fallout
Suicide

That last one surprised me. And yet it didn't. Holidays are often much harder than every day living for those with depression and other mental health issues.

This post has been making the rounds:

Hard time of the year for a lot of folks..Suicide Hotline 800-273-TALK (8255). A simple copy and paste might save someone's life.

Paul Gessler of Fox Baltimore posted a promo to a Howard County connection.

In ~90 minutes, flip it to @FoxBaltimore for an inside look at Howard County's only crisis hotline in the midst of rising suicide rates.

The headline:

Crisis hotlines busy as they try to fight record suicide rates

Howard County's only crisis hotline is operated by Grassroots. The 24-hour hotline number is (410) 531-6677. They have recently developed a free app, "There is Hope", to assist in suicide prevention. 

Food
Family
Holiday Shopping
Election Fallout
Suicide

The holidays aren't the most wonderful time of the year for everyone. In fact, they can be a recipe for disaster. We are fortunate to have the folks at Grassroots there if we need them. Not everyone has a safety net they can turn to when all seems lost. And sometimes those people are there but we don't feel we can ask them for help. Reaching out may feel like placing a burden on those we love,

"A lot of our [callers] call in because they need to connect with somebody. They just don't know what else to do," Field-Barnett said. "Our job is not to fix problems for them, but to help them fix them themselves."

A crisis hotline is very, very important under these circumstances.

That brings me back to that other thing in my social media feed: charitable donations. This Tuesday has become known as Giving Tuesday, an opportunity to share some of our holiday funds with good causes we support. May I suggest Grassroots? Make a donation to fund the Crisis Hotline and the other valuable work they do in our community. Or support them through one of their fundrainers, such as Breakfast with Santa at the Nordstrom Café.

My in-laws have requested that this year, instead of giving each other Christmas presents, we donate to a charity that means a lot to us. I think I've found mine.