The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (VA TVHS) is partnering with City Café in the Murfreesboro town square to offer free coffee and suicide prevention discussion Wednesday, September 25 from 7:30 - 10:30 a.m. at City Café, 113 E Main St, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.
Nancy Morris with the local VA said that it is important for everyone to know more about suicide prevention...
As part of its recognition of September as Suicide Prevention Month, TVHS suicide prevention case managers are making themselves available in this relaxed, informal setting to discuss how people can support the Veterans in their lives.
This year's Suicide Prevention Awareness Month theme is #BeThere. VA wants friends, family members and fellow Veterans to understand how easy it is to offer the support someone in crisis might need.
"You don't need any special training to be there for a Veteran," said TVHS Suicide Prevention Case Manager Nancy Morris, who will be at City Café Wednesday. "There are simple things anyone can do to show support for someone going through difficulties."
Morris said it's as simple as starting a conversation, and that could mean sending a text or making a phone call, extending an invitation to go for a walk, or offering coffee and a chat.
Wednesday morning's event is free and open to everyone. Morris and her colleagues will have suicide prevention information and promotional items to hand out, and City Café will offer free coffee in addition to its standard menu.
Suicide prevention is VA's top clinical priority. Raising awareness of the resources and information available to Veterans, their families and friends is a key component of VA's public health approach to preventing suicide.
TVHS is an integrated tertiary health care system comprised of two hospitals, the Alvin C. York Campus in Murfreesboro and the Nashville Campus, as well as more than a dozen community-based outpatient clinics located in Tennessee and Kentucky. TVHS provides ambulatory care, primary care, and secondary care in acute medicine and surgery, specialized tertiary care, transplant services, spinal cord injury outpatient care, and a full range of extended care and mental health services.
City Café opened in 1900 and is billed as the oldest restaurant still in operation in Murfreesboro.
