Tonight, being 12:00 AM Pacific time, A member of the Bipolar community on DS has attempted suicide. His condition is unsure and may or may not make it. I want this to serve as a reminder of what this board is for. It's for a group of people with a common illness to come together and support one another. I made a long distance call to the Pennsylvania state patrol to get them the information needed. I wasn't alone in this tonight, though. I had 2 other members join me in helping this one suffering member. I would hope any of you would do the same for any one else on this board. But you must know what to do in this situation.

1: Try to get there phone number. this is important for 2 reasons.. one is so you can talk to them and keep them calm but the other is to give to the Police. If you can get there First name that will help but you can use there screen name if no other option is available.

2: Call the State patrol. once you have there info, get a helper to call the State Patrol in the state of the victim and give the number to them. The information on the State patrol is available online by using your search engine and typing "(Nebraska) State Patrol" almost always it will be the first page available. Once there, a link should be available for contact info. Once you call them and have a dispatcher on the line, get the dispatchers number so that way if you need to call them back you can get the same Dispatcher for faster help.

3: Keep them talking. Don't let them go until the ambulance gets there and you know they're in good hands. If you can get the Hospital to which they will be transported.

I hope no one on this board ever has to put these steps into practice but all the same we should be prepared. If you can keep a network of friends ready to act (have them keep phone numbers on hand) and when we are looking at our friends in the list, lets look at the ones in the "Friends in need" column as well as who is Online.

This is what DS is suppose to be about, DAILY STRENGTH... Strength for ourselves as well for each other...

I love you all for this reason

Rich (Chuggernaught)