Three years ago, Lauren Wilson sat in a room with her fellow Miss Pleasant Grove hopefuls as the pageant officials asked each contestant which platform issue her year of service would be dedicated to. Wilson opened her mouth and surprised herself, as much as everyone else in the room, with what came out.
“I said, 'suicide awareness and prevention,' and my mom and I started crying,” said Wilson, who was crowned Miss Utah this year. “A bunch of the other girls also started crying. They all knew Sydney.”
That was Feb. 9, 2013, and only two days earlier, Wilson’s best friend Sydney Bruning had taken her life. She was 17 years old, a senior at Pleasant Grove High School, described as a well-liked, vivacious girl. Wilson, stunned by the loss of her friend, decided to throw herself into serving the community.
The 22-year-old has already made great strides in bringing awareness to this tough issue.
She is on the Utah Governor’s Coalition for Suicide Prevention and works with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Hope4Utah.
“I can’t think of a single soul who will better represent Utah,” said Taryn Aiken, Utah director of the AFSP, who points to Wilson’s glittering crown as a significant reason they now walk easily through doors that were previously closed.
“There’s a stigma that if you talk about it more, it’s going to happen more,” Wilson said.
Each school is provided a yearly $500 state-offered budget to prepare teachers to recognize warning signs and handle a potential crisis. Unfortunately, “many schools let the money just sit there,” Aiken said.
Wilson promotes Hope4Utah’s peer-to-peer “Hope Squads” as a school solution because the “numbers are proof that it works,” she says. Prior to 2005, the Provo School District saw an average of one to two suicides per year, but after its 2005 implementation of Hope Squads, there were no completed suicides through 2013.
Wilson’s goal is for other school districts to see these results and to open their schools to Hope Squads.
Suicide was the leading cause of death among youths aged 10-17 in Utah in 2013, according to health.utah.gov, and the state’s suicide rate for those 10-17 has more than doubled from 2007 to 2014, according to health.utah.gov.
Utah joins seven other states in the Intermountain West known as the Suicide Belt, and a 2015 University of Utah study found a correlation between high altitude and the rates of depression, the mental illness most directly linked to suicide. The study notes these states have suicide rates over 18 per 100,000 people. The national average is 12.5 per 100,000.
Although Wilson possesses a Bachelor of Science in behavioral science with an emphasis in psychology, her expertise is not in diagnosing specific causes for suicide. However, she believes that the root of suicide prevention lies with destigmatizing mental illness.
“It’s not treated like a physical illness, as it should be,” she said.
After being crowned Miss Utah in June, Wilson then prepared for the Miss America competition Sept. 11 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In 2013, Wilson planned to compete with a different platform, but Sydney’s sudden suicide was her impetus into activism. It also became an avenue for her recovery.
“Choosing this as my platform, educating myself on it, and talking to others was very healing for me,” she said.
When asked what Wilson hopes her legacy will be, it has nothing to do with a sash and crown and has everything to do with her friend Sydney.
“I hope others will see that I’m willing to help,” Wilson said. “I want them to know how much I care.”
As for her work with suicide prevention and awareness, she said, “This isn’t something I just chose for a pageant. This is something I am going to continue with for the rest of my life.”
If you or someone you know have thoughts of suicide, call the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.
Other hotlines:
- Utah County Crisis Line: 801-226-4433
Salt Lake County/UNI Crisis Line: 801-587-3000
Wasatch Mental Health Crisis Line: 801-373-7393
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Trevor Project Hotline for LGBTQ teens: 1-866-488-7386
Online resources:
Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition: Utahsuicideprevention.org
NAMI Utah: namiut.org
Utah Chapter-American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsputah.com
Suicide Prevention Lifeline: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
Crisis counselors can also be reached using the SafeUT app on any smartphone.