PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 2 1/2 times as many suicide deaths in the United States as there are homicides which has prompted the nation’s Surgeon General to recently issue a call to action to address the problem through locally based efforts.
Joel Smith, program director for the Florida Initiative For Suicide Prevention, or FISP, said that the action plan is focused on identification and intervention, especially among high risk groups.
“At this point the Surgeon General wanted to bring attention to who is suffer and what needs to be done about it. While we spend a lot of time having our heart strings pulled by losing a young person and we have in fact lost a lot of young people, point of fact the articles point out to us that 40-years old and up are the critical group, particularly white men,” said Smith.
FISP has recently joined forces with Mental Health America of Southeast Florida to double the resources for reaching out to those in need of support.
And potentially good news for those who wear glasses... A preliminary study suggests they may offer some protection from COVID-19.
The study out of India found that the risk of infection was two to three times lower among those who wear glasses for long periods of time, meaning at least 8 hours a day.
The study noted that COVID infection through the eyes is extremely rare but if droplets from the virus do get into someone’s eyes they can easily go to the nose or mouth.