Mormon Newsroom released a report Tuesday outlining how Utah government and community leaders are coming together for teen suicide prevention. On Tuesday morning, Governor Gary Herbert invited members of the Teen Suicide Prevention Task Force to share their recommendations regarding teen suicide prevention.
Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were invited to participate in the task force. Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy, who is participating in the task force, told Mormon Newsroom that the job at hand is "not just responding to the crisis, it's how do we work with youth and how do we strengthen youth in the long term."
The task force emphasized the importance of existing programs, such as the Safe UT mobile app, a free tip and crisis response app available to K-12 students, suicide prevention training, and mobile outreach teams that help people in crisis at no cost. They also recommended creating a suicide prevention fund.
"Working together, I think we can find answers," Governor Gary Herbert said at the conference.
The task force will continue to work to find solutions to suicide in the coming months. You can watch Mormon Newsroom's report of Tuesday's conference below.