KENTUCKY — Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults in Kentucky, according to data from the Suicide Resource Center.

15% of Kentucky high school students, which is about 1 in 7, reported having seriously considered suicide within a 12-month period, according to a Kentucky Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted as part of a national effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor students’ health-risk behaviors in multiple priority areas.

However, experts say that suicide can be preventable. 

Kentucky State Rep. Lisa Willner of Louisville (D-Jefferson County) is a licensed psychologist and has been a strong advocate in the General Assembly supporting several mental health related pieces of legislation.

"It's heartbreaking to hear those statistics and, you know, for anyone who's been close to someone who has lost anyone by suicide it's so heartbreaking and there's always the questions of how could we have prevented this? And you know sometimes the answer to that is through policy. And how can policies make folks safer from risk of suicide?," explains Willner.

Also during this In Focus Kentucky segment, Rep. Willner shares details on a bill that she is sponsoring in the 2022 legislative session that is from two Kentucky students who are pushing to get excused school absences for mental health days.

"Bill Request 185 came to State Rep. Bobby McCool (R -Johnson, Morgan, Wolfe) and me from two of our constituents, a young woman from here in Louisville, Cameron Julianne who attends DuPont manual High School. She came to the legislature with this idea for student mental health days. And in eastern Kentucky, the student there called and brought the very same idea to us. And the idea is that school systems would add a policy related to mental health and this would hopefully give students and families the flexibility to know when their child is struggling, and to be able to take a day off. We have hope that this will increase conversations around mental health and mental health awareness within families and as well as in the school setting," says Rep. Willner