To the editor:

Thank you, Dave Ranney, and the editors of the Journal-World for featuring a story on the impact of losing a loved one to suicide on the front page of a recent Sunday edition (June 27).

Mental health and access to health care are among the 10 leading health indicators of Healthy People 2010. Reducing the stigma of using mental health services and increasing access to mental health services are among the 11 goals of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, developed under the leadership of Surgeon General David Satcher. Every step in these directions is a step toward saving a life.

Your very sensitive and informative article provided a public voice to some of our own community members who are “survivors of suicide,” people who have lost a loved one to suicide. They shared their pain, as well as their encouragement to use help, for those considering ending their own lives, and for those who have lost a loved one in this very tragic way. The article prompted friends and co-workers to reach out to those they know who have experienced this loss. And it prompted some survivors to begin talking about their previously unspoken losses.

Thanks, Dave, for your very compassionate and thorough work on this story.

Marcia Epstein, director

Headquarters Counseling

Center, Lawrence