Senator Gordon H. Smith
Originally uploaded by Center for the Study of Ethics at UVSC.
Senator Smith spoke today on the topic of suicide prevention. The Senator's son, Garrett, took his own life while a UVSC student. The Senator, and his wife Sharon, shared the story of Garrett's life-long depression and the events leading up to his taking his life. Senator Smith spent a portion of the talk telling the large Ragan Theatre audience how to spot the signs of depression. He gave a list of things to not do, such as telling the depressed person to just get to work and stop being depressed or daring them to take their life. He stressed that a good friend of a depressed person would take active efforts to insure there were no fire-arms or life-threatening drugs available to the person, and not agreeing to keeping suicidal confidences.
After the speech, Senator Smith and his wife Sharon fielded questions from the audience.
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