Speaker 0: Communication from Councilmember Pearce, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Price, Councilmember Super Non recommendation to request city manager to work with Department of Health and Human Services and Long Beach Police Department and report back to council in the next 30 days. Long Beach's Current Suicide Prevention Methods and establish a suicide prevention plan.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Pearce.
Speaker 4: Thank you. And I want to thank my colleagues for signing on to this item last minute. I know that we have a long council agenda tonight, but we wanted to make sure that we started putting the wheels in motion for this item. And it has been something that I've wanted to put on the agenda since I got into office. And with everything that's happened recently and awareness around it, it seems like we've kind of missed some opportunities. So I wanted to agenda is this tonight, so I'm just going to read the item and have a little bit of public comment. Since the early 2000, we have seen a rise in suicide cases. In a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they found that from 1999 to 2016, suicide rates spurred spread to the top across the nation. In 2016, the highest suicide rate was among whites at 15% and Native Americans at 13% in 2018. On average, one person dies by suicide every 2 hours, making the at the 11th leading cause of death in California, and second leading cause of death for ages 25 to 34. In Long Beach, we have an average of 3 to 4 suicides a month. Action is desperately needed. Aside from mental illness, there are several risks that factors may contribute to the thoughts of suicide, attempted suicide and actual suicide. They include previous suicide attempts, substance abuse, incarceration, family history of suicide, poor job security, low levels of job satisfaction, history of being abused or witnessing continuous abuse. Being diagnosed with a serious medical condition such as cancer, HIV being socially isolated or a victim of bullying. Currently, the states such as Utah, Alaska, Colorado, among others, have taken steps in creating suicide prevention task force to do community outreach and provide training services with the guidance of methods such as applied suicide intervention skills, also known as Assist. Safe Talk Assist is a two day training that covers understanding of suicides, provide skills to recognize suicide risk and intervenes to prevent it. Safe Talk Trains individuals to learn how to respond to someone when expressing suicidal thoughts. Identify a person of risk of suicide and how to connect them to resources. Establishing a suicide prevention plan will educate the community on suicide risk factors, protective factors, recovery and healing process. Creating a community task force will be able to work with you with strategies such as education, outreach and support for the community. The goal is to reduce deaths by suicide, increasing awareness and understanding, and to connect individuals with resources that can provide methods of healing. And I want to applaud the city. I know that we are taking on trauma informed work. We've got a lot of resources in the city already and I think working across the county with other organizations and leaders and I know we have some here tonight really will help us raise awareness. And when we look at these factors as a whole, the city is doing a really great job. But if we don't have that lens of preventing suicide, then it might not work. And for me and I know that I tend to share my personal story back here a lot and I could not do it on this issue. When I was six, I found my mother OD'd in the bathroom. When I was ten, she slit her wrist and in 2009 she was finally successful. And so I know the impacts of suicide. My district is a district that includes downtown in our waterfronts. The majority of public suicides happen in my district. I'm reminded often of these impacts. And so this item for me is important, not just as an item to say as a city that we're moving forward on suicide prevention. It is something that I'm going to put my heart into for the rest of my term to make sure I'm working with the health department, with the county, and with any resources that we can. And so I know our director of the health department, we haven't really talked in detail about this. And so I'm asking for a report back in 30 days just on kind of where we're at and and where we think we can go and what resources we might need to implement a plan like this. I don't I'm going to put you on the spot tonight, but we can work together over the next 30 days. And I know we have at least somebody here in the audience that wants to speak. And so I urge my colleagues to wholeheartedly support this item. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Speaker 5: Yes, thank you, Councilmember Pearce, for bringing it forward and sharing your story. I know oftentimes we're led by policy, through policy making, by our personal stories and backgrounds. And it's it's very profound that we're able to do this, of course, for a colleague that had dealt with that in her family, but also for a lot of the residents, you know, I really hated seeing some of our watch commander lists. We see all of the every action. Unfortunately, that is violent action happen. We see it come through our email, our city council members. And the last week or so, we had seen I think about two or three public suicides in the second district, and it was just really alarming. It was the same time, of course, we had heard about Tony Bourdain and then about Kate Spade, which is on a national level. But to see it here in your city is a whole different story. So I'm glad that we're actually putting some effort and energy to this to see what we can do to, you know, to to limit this. I know in the LGBTQ community, obviously, we have seven times more likely to commit suicide, especially within the transgender community. So we have a lot of work to do in looking at those specific demographics and then, of course, looking at it comprehensively to really eradicate this this issue and hopefully provide more resources in light. And I think our health department, too, because I know, Kelly, you've been working on this issue as well. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilmember Muranga.
Speaker 2: O'Rourke.
Speaker 10: Thank you, Mayor. Great enunciation by way.
Speaker 1: I learn first language, brother.
Speaker 10: There you go. I want to, first of all, thank Councilmember Pearce for bringing this forward. Suicide touches are touches us all in one form or another, whether it's a national icon or a person across the street. I had a couple in my history, in my lifetime where I haven't witnessed it, but close family friends have taken that route. And, you know, when I reflect on those relationships, I wonder if I could have done something myself in recognizing some of the behaviors that were present at the time, such as a couple of very, very, very compelling to me is like self-mutilation or self hurt, pulling their hair, burning their fingers, or pinching themselves or cutting themselves with a knife or a blade. Just those types of behaviors that that eventually led to to the ultimate sacrifice on their own cells, in their bodies. And and had I known more than what I know today, perhaps I could have made a recommendation, or I could have intervened in one way or another. And I think that this type of education is very important for all of us to note, so that we can do our part to prevent someone from from making that that from taking their own lives. So I'm glad that this is put forward. I totally support it. And I hope that we have a significant impact on it as well. And I hope that when we finally put something in place that we could get a report on it and to to see what the what we can what we can add or tweak or enhance, probably as we were as we move forward as to as well. So thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Andrews.
Speaker 8: You know, just kind of mentioned on this the item that was brought forward in front of us today, because the last, you know, past Friday was Juneteenth celebration at Kings Park and that and help manage the nonprofit organization in my district, you know, which I partner with. And for the main focus, the celebration was bringing out mental health resources for the sixth District community. You know, in light of this recent tragedy, I think that this item is needed. And I would like to thank Councilman Price for bringing it forward. I'm looking forward to having six district residents on the Community Tax Task Force, if that's possible. And thank you again, Spice, for bringing that forward.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman Price.
Speaker 5: It was my my twin Pierce who brought the item forward. But everyone always confuses us. But I was privileged to be asked to sign on to this item. I think, you know, what's happened in the last few weeks with the public coverage of high profile suicides is really been just.
Speaker 3: A.
Speaker 5: Huge exclamation point on this concept of mental health, mental health discussions, mental health awareness, and the fact that you just never know where people are at in their lives. You just have no idea what's going on in people's lives and what is causing them sadness and feeling like they're they have no hope. So I'm I'm I'm very supportive of this item. And I thank Councilwoman Pearce for council person council woman hope. I don't know what should go by council Lady Pearce for bringing this item forward. And I think anything we can do as a city to provide support, outreach and education we should be doing. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 2: And thank you, Council Lady Pearce as well. Hey, this is you know, it's a real issue. And, you know, you know, people in their kitchen tables, they're looking at the statistics. It's all over the news. It's it's an epidemic that's growing in our in our country. And and I don't know why. I don't understand the psyche of it, but I think it does need to be acknowledged by our city. So thanks for bringing this up and hopefully we can make a difference in somebody's life.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman. Mr. Brown, thanks for the.
Speaker 2: Bringing the item forward and inviting me to sign on. You know, it's been a few hours now since we spoke about community hospital, but I'm just struck by the fact that we could use a lose 28 beds in that psych unit there and how critical that is to.
Speaker 8: This very issue.
Speaker 1: So thank you. Thank you. And I also want to thank Councilmember Pearce. I think this is a very important issue and it's one I think that affects everyone. I know that I think everyone is affected or has been affected by suicide or knowing someone that has had mental health challenges. And so I think this is great to look at and I certainly applaud all the cosigners on this item. So with that, I want to go take public comment.
Speaker 4: She waited. Honorable Mayor and city council. I'm her Linda Chico Phil Deputy for supervisor Janice Hahn. Mental health and and and well-being is very important to Supervisor Hahn. So it was important that she asked me to read a letter of support for Councilmember Pierce's item into record. I would like to thank Councilmember Jeanine Pearce for introducing this agenda item that would establish a suicide prevention plan. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over the last two decades, suicide rates have increased across the nation. In fact, suicide is now the 11th leading cause of death in California and second leading cause of death for ages 25 to 34. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health has established an access center which is designated to facilitate connections to crisis intervention and the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team 24 hours, seven days a week for all L.A. County residents through their Youth Suicide Prevention Project. The County of Los Angeles also provides outreach and support to schools, parents and high risk youth populations. Please count on the County of Los Angeles as a resource. The topic of suicide is a difficult but important conversation communities need to have. I am proud of the leadership. The city of Long Beach is demonstrating to educate the community on suicide risk factors, as well as strategies for outreach, support and prevention. I look forward to expanding our partnership in addressing this serious issue. Janice Hahn, Chair Pro-Tem, Supervisor, Fourth District, County of Los Angeles, thanks.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 2: My name is and I am resident sixth district. I want to thank the Councilperson Peters for bringing this up. Today I have a question I want to know. The state of the in my neighborhood on the 21st and long is provided as a mental hospital. It was used to be a mental hospital, I believe. I wanted to know the state of the reopening I saw on the news maybe a couple of months ago. I think the mayor might have spoke about it, reopening a couple of hundred beds there. What's the the state of that?
Speaker 1: It's under construction. And so they're actively working to open that site up. And they believe that that's something that'll be you know, I think there's still probably about six months plus away for Mr. West. If you want to quickly make the big facility on one boulevard there at least six months away. Right. Approximately six months. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion in a second and we had public comment. Please cast your votes.
Speaker 0: Motion carries.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We have two items are related to fire fireworks. So those are item 26 and 46. One is an item by Councilwoman Price. I think the other one is a report on fireworks from the fire department. Councilman, should we hear the report first from the fire department and then the item or how did you want to do that?
Speaker 5: Well, I wanted to have our citizen group come up first, if that's okay. Sure. I think that's first on the item. And just to be clear, there's there's no relationship between the two reports. We usually get a report from fire leading into 4th of July on their outreach efforts.
Recommendation to request City Manager to work with Department of Health and Human Services and Long Beach Police Department and report back to Council in the next 30 days; A report of Long Beach's current suicide prevention methods; establish a suicide prevention plan; create a suicide prevention community task force; and training for community members on intervention, procedures, and knowledge of existing resources.