Surviving Suicide Loss
| 2009 Survivor Award | ||
 | The 2009 Survivor of Suicide Loss Award was presented to Al and Mary Kluesner, who lost their 21-year-old daughter, Amy, and 38-year-old son, Michael, to suicide. Following Amy’s death in 1985, Al and Mary became cofounders of SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), an organization that works to prevent suicides by educating the public about depression. A decade later, they helped establish the National Council for Suicide Prevention, which is comprised of not-for-profit organizations, including AFSP, dedicated to preventing suicide. Al and Mary also developed and implemented the concept of using billboards to educate Americans about the serious nature of depression, and to urge those clinically depressed to see their doctor. They continue to be leading advocates in Minnesota, introducing suicide prevention legislation in the state, and have presented at various conferences both locally and nationally. Al currently chairs the AFSP pilot billboard campaign, which started in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area with funds raised by the Kluesners, and now after an evaluation, will be expanded to other major markets nationwide. |
2008 Survivor Award
The 2008 Survivor of Suicide Loss Award was presented to Eric Hipple, a former NFL quarterback who lost his 15-year-old son, Jeff, to suicide in 2000. Hipple’s 10-year football career was spent entirely with the Detroit Lions, from 1980 to 1990. His accomplishments include two playoff bids and a divisional championship. After struggling with depression himself in the aftermath of his son’s death, Hipple decided to devote his energies to helping others to detect and treat depression, and to break down the stigma surrounding depressive illnesses. Hipple is currently an outreach coordinator and spokesperson for the University of Michigan Depression Center, and has given more than 100 presentations on the importance of early detection and prevention of depression to schools, communities, law enforcement, armed services and professional organizations including the NFL Players Association and the National Funeral Directors Association. His primary message is one of hope: that depression is a treatable illness. Hipple also serves on the boards of the Mental Illness Research Association and the American Association of Suicidology.
2007 Special Tribute Award
AFSP honored the founding survivors of the Foundation in 2007 with a special tribute award. In 1987, Norman Brickell, Karen Dunne-Maxim, Mariette Hartley, Dr. Sherwin and Claire Kaufman, and Elinor Wohl came together with leading experts in the field to form an organization dedicated to funding the research and education programs necessary to prevent suicide.Through their concerted efforts, AFSP was established, becoming the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those affected by suicide.
Former AFSP Chair Norman Brickell and longstanding AFSP board member Elinor Wohl lost their 18-year-old son, Rodd, to suicide in 1985. They have continued to provide leadership and support to AFSP and also run the Rodd D. Brickell Foundation to prevent youth suicide.
Since the loss of her youngest brother, Tim, to suicide in 1972, AFSP Survivor Council member Karen Dunne-Maxim has been trying to help survivors of suicide loss heal their pain. She is an experienced clinician who has developed new and innovative models for responding to the special needs of families bereaving suicide. A recognized expert on issues related to survivors of suicide loss, she is a frequent consultant to print and television media, and coauthored the first publication to deal with suicide from the survivor's perspective.
Emmy Award-winning actress, author and AFSP Honorary Director Mariette Hartley has been an advocate for suicide prevention for almost 20 years. After losing her father, she became one of the first celebrities to publicly discuss suicide. By writing a best-selling memoir, and through numerous television interviews, she has informed the public about depression and has helped reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. In 1999, she hosted AFSP's first National Survivors of Suicide Day broadcast.
AFSP board members Sherwin and Claire Kaufman lost their son, Michael, to suicide in 1988. Their concern for fellow survivors and to the cause of suicide prevention has contributed to the growth of the Foundation over the past 20 years.
2006 Survivor Award
CNN anchor and correspondent Randi Kaye lost her father, Gilbert, in November 2002 while she was a news anchor for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis.Desperate for information about depression after losing her father, whom she would later describe as "a friend and a mentor," she found SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), a national not-for-profit suicide prevention agency based in Minneapolis. She currently serves on the board of directors of SAVE, and in 2004 was the host of the sixth annual SAVE golf tournament called Randi Kaye's Links for Life. Through the the loss of her father, Kaye has looked to make a difference by educating her community and other communities about depression and saving lives.
2005 Survivor Award
AFSP Survivor Award recipient Iris Bolton lost her 20-year-old son, Curtis Mitchell Bolton, to suicide in 1977. One year later she started one of the first survivor support groups in the country. In 1983, Bolton's book, My Son...My Son, a Guide to Healing After Death, Loss, or Suicide, was published, describing in detail the journey she made from the devastation of losing her son to the step by step healing that took place in her life. The book is now in its 18th pressing and is available around the world. As executive director of The Link Counseling Center in Atlanta, Bolton's work culminated in the creation of the Center's National Resource Center for Suicide Prevention and Aftercare. The Link's NRC provides awareness and education on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. Bolton is a member of the National Council for Suicide Prevention and has worked tirelessly in the field of suicide prevention for the past 28 years. She is co-founder of the North Atlanta Chapter of Compassionate Friends, a national, self-help organization for bereaved parents.
2004 Survivor Award
In 1997, Nancy Johnson lost her son, Chris, to suicide. As a way of healing, Ms. Johnson became active in suicide prevention and with AFSP. She started an AFSP-Northwest chapter in1999. With a focus on youth suicide prevention, Ms. Johnson was instrumental in the development of AFSP's teen suicide prevention public service campaign, "Suicide Shouldn't Be a Secret." The public service announcements as part of this campaign featured local teens from the Portland, Ore. area, some of whom were close friends with her son. Initially launched in April 2000, the PSAs can currently be seen in 85 markets nationwide, and have reached over 85 million television viewers. In addition this national campaign, Ms. Johnson has played a large part in gatekeeper training and other services concerning suicide in the state of Oregon and has helped to disseminate AFSP's suicide prevention message through numerous television and radio appearances and in print interviews.
2003 Survivor Award
Fred and Michele Goodstein, who lost their son, Jonathan, to suicide while he was attending college, became the driving force behind a new national initiative to educate college students about depression and the risk for suicide. This project includes a documentary film featuring students who have lost a peer to suicide or have struggled with their own suicidal depression, and a CD-ROM with links to websites and information that encourages students to seek help for themselves or a peer. This film would not be possible without the Goodstein Family's fundraising campaign and the leadership they provided throughout the film's production.
2002 Survivor Award
AFSP-New England board member Nancy Simches, and her husband, Richard Simches, who is being honored posthumously, were presented with the Survivor Award. After the tragic loss of their daughter, Joanne, Mr. and Mrs. Simches dedicated themselves to advancing research into the causes of suicide. In 1995, they established an endowed fund at AFSP in memory of Joanne. Mr. and Mrs. Simches have been most generous to AFSP, McLean Hospital and other organizations, most recently making a half-million dollar bequest to AFSP to help educate mental health professionals to recognize and treat depressed and suicidal individuals.
2001 Survivor Award
Alvin Poussaint, M.D., and Amy Alexander were honored with the 2001 Survivor Award for turning their personal losses into major suicide prevention efforts through their book, Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis among African Americans (Beacon Press, 2000). Dr. Poussaint and Ms. Alexander, both of whom lost their brothers to suicide, wrote Lay My Burden Down in order to raise awareness about the growing problem of suicide among African Americans, while also offering a detailed analysis of the often-difficult relationship between African Americans and the white medical establishment. Poussaint and Alexander trace the historical and psychosocial factors that have led many African Americans to avoid seeking psychiatric treatment and the historical failure of white mental health professionals to address the needs of the African-American community. Dr. Poussaint is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of numerous articles and books, most notably, Raising Black Children (1992) with James Comer, M.D. A former consultant for "The Cosby Show" and the director of the media center of the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, Dr. Poussaint lectures widely on college campuses on a range of social issues, including parenting and children's needs. Amy Alexander is a freelance journalist who has written about American race relations for such newspapers as the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald and the Village Voice.
2000 Survivor Award
The 2000 Survivor's Award was given to singer, writer and survivor Judy Collins. Her nearly 40 years in the music industry have spanned 30 albums and produced a string of Grammy nominations and gold and platinum sellers. World-renowned for her singing, Collins is also known as an author, actress, humanitarian, UNICEF activist and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. In 1998, Collins published Singing Lessons: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing, which dealt with the 1992 loss of her son, Clark, to suicide. In the book Collins wrote movingly about her experience of grief and the crucial lessons she learned through the experience, "lessons of work, of survival, of loss, of love; lessons of singing through the storm." Her memoir and her years of prevention work serve as a message of hope and a model of advocacy for survivors everywhere.
