Addressing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

Class Notes
Class of 1992
Posted on April 30, 2021

I saw that McLean Hospital had done a Deconstructing Stigma exhibit addressing mental health and suicide prevention at Logan Airport a few months after the loss of my beautiful brother Ian back in 2016. I reached out to them and then to my friend Gene Richards who runs the Burlington International Airport. He said an immediate and enthusiastic yes to bringing the exhibit to Vermont and the installation has finally begun.

What a healthy and life-saving message this is for every person flying into and out of our state.
It is beautiful, powerful, uplifting, and HOPE-FILLED.
It turns sadness, pain, and loss into HOPE and LIGHT.

My story of Ian is here.

Here are the other stories of hope from Vermonters.

The stories are all extraordinary— as is the ongoing, life-saving work at McLean.
Knowing that millions coming and going from Vermont will see this conversation, fills me with more hope than you can imagine, taking the impossible loss of my beautiful brother Ian and, in partnership with BTV and McLean, the top mental health hospital in the world, to seek the LIGHT.
Please reach out to McLean to get an installation in your state! Let’s put this conversation on the table.

In crisis? Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1.800.273.8255 or text “HOME” to 741741.

Ashley McAvey

1992

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