Lynette Vega follows calling with Zero Suicides Elko County

Apr. 26—ELKO — Zero Suicides Elko County President Lynette Vega follows a life calling of informing Nevada residents about suicide prevention.

Although her path is not the easiest at times, she has orchestrated change in how Elko residents of all ages view the topic of suicide and understand how to help prevent it.

"We get out into the community to educate everyone about suicide prevention and mental health. And we go into the schools into the classrooms and do presentations. And we also have our monthly meeting at the hospital, and anyone in the community is welcome to attend," Vega said.

"We keep track of the data and we try to figure out how we can best serve every age, because it is known that white males over 60 have one of the highest suicide rates, but yet they don't come to the hospital for help. So we try to think of ways that we can reach and go to them," she explained.

"We thought about going to the Elko Senior Center and just having lunch, just sitting there and having lunch with people and making ourselves visible."

Vega said the Zero Suicides Elko County team brings lollipops marked with positive messages to middle school and high school students, "trying to spread the message of hope, that there is hope."

Vega works as an educator in SafeTALK and ASSIST training, which Zero Suicides Elko County has introduced to the Elko County School District.

"SafeTALK is a three- to four-hour training," she explained, "where you learn how to talk with someone who is suicidal or has suicidal ideation and how to get them safe and how to get them some help."

The two-day ASSIST training is more intense, with role-playing situations simulating conversations with someone in a crisis, she said.

"We recommend that you take the SafeTALK one first, to get your feet kind of wet in it," she said.

On Saturday, Zero Suicides Elko will host their Bikinis and Babes event at the Elko Basque Club. Vega said her hope is to host an event which will attract Elko residents other than strictly mental health professionals.

"I think it's going to work, because we've been selling tickets on Eventbrite and our community members are showing up and buying those," Vega said.

The event will raise money to help families clean up after a loved one who died by suicide. While the state of Nevada provides money for homicide cleanups, they offer no financial support for suicide cleanups.

"No family should have to clean up after their loved one," she said. "So we're going to have this fundraiser."

Zero Suicides Elko County will hire The Clean Team, a company with biohazard experience, in such instances.

Vega shared some ways the organization is branching out beyond Elko County and around Nevada.

"If outlying areas need help, we definitely will help," Vega noted.

"We just went to Ely and went through all their middle schools and high school and went to Lund — and did presentations about suicide prevention and mental health to mainly let the kids know that it's OK to not be OK, and to ask for help. You are your biggest advocate. Because we cannot see inside your head what's going on, you have to ask for help," she said.

"A lot of people, when they hear the word suicide, they just clam up and they don't want to talk about it or ask any questions."

Vega said she has learned not to let a stigma prevent her from achieving her life's purpose.

"How I even got started in this is that my daughter had died by suicide when she was 23," Vega said. "I was teaching sixth grade at the time" at Flag View Intermediate School in 2008. "I was talking to the kids about Rachel's Challenge."

But then, "one of the kids raised their hands and asked if someone had died by suicide, and I said, 'No, she helped someone not die by suicide.' Well, I got called to the principal's office," Vega said. "They asked me why the word 'suicide' was brought up, because the parent called and was concerned. And I told them why and they said, 'OK.' They just had to ask.

"But as I was walking back, I was thinking to myself, I'm going to take all this SafeTALK and ASSIST training that I can and put those stickers on my door, because we had teachers at school who had breast cancer awareness magnets on their doors. They weren't called down because they had the word 'breast' on their doors. We also had sixth-grade boys who wore 'I love boobies' bracelets. And they weren't called down to the office because they had 'boobies' on their bracelets. So I thought, 'this is ridiculous that we can't say the word suicide without somebody being scared or worried.' You have to be open and happy to talk about it," Vega explained.

"That's how I got started. And that's how I just kept moving forward. Every now and then, you get pushed back. But then you just stand back up and just keep going.

"I couldn't do a lot of this without my board members, for sure," Vega noted. "I mean, they're definitely the backbone of all this. They've been there for me and I've been there for them as well but they definitely have helped me out a lot," she said.

"And because of them, we're able to do a lot more in the community," she said.

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