About Us
Core Motivation
In a given year, more than 5,504 young people nationally between the ages of 10-24 complete suicide.
Nationally suicide overall is the 10th leading cause of death.
The current level of suicide prevention is simply not enough. Community members, teachers, peers often feel ill-equipped to help a friend or loved one through a period of suicidal behavior. The acceptability of suicide as a valid alternative is not acceptable. We must make more concerted effort to change the social acceptability of suicide.
Suicide training and prevention techniques have proven to reduce rates of suicide behavior. Hold On aims to address the enormous needs of the youth community which is currently chronically underserved and misunderstood.
The Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention states in their annual report that “more services are needed to fill the gap.” The focus of their recommendations is to enhance the services for those in crisis management care. While this is fantastic, it focuses only on the 20% of the population that attempts and completes suicide. The annual report also states that there is a need to “…teach youth important help-seeking behaviors for themselves and for friends in crisis…evidenced based, primary prevention program designed to build emotional resiliency, increase school connectedness and prevent suicide in schools.” Again the focus seems to be those already in crisis and does not consider effort toward changing the value statement that suicide is an unspoken option for youth.[1]
Core Purpose
Hold On exists to empower adolescents to find meaning: to hold on to the gift of life; to pursue personal goals, and find meaningful roles as family member and friend.
Core Values
Innovative
Adolescents are unique in many ways. Developmentally, their outlook on life, their approach and ability to problem solve, physical changes, and their development of good judgment suggest that reaching them on their level requires innovation and should include all these key concepts:
- Reach teens where they are socially engaged.
- Understand Teenage Head Space. During adolescents go through many changes that affect their reasoning skills.
- Know the who and what with trends and those things that are influencing them.
- Identifying change agents to use positive peer messaging through social engagement.
Collaborative
Hold On embraces the idea that multiple sources of help and various types of service are essential in reducing risk, providing adequate intervention in crisis, and offer a variety of resources is necessary.
Courageousness
Just as sharing one’s mental health diagnosis calls for extraordinary bravery, Hold On will exhibit bravery to fight injustices and stigma by creating awareness, hope, and equipping young people to Hold On.
Hold On will exhibit courage by changing the social construct that currently states that suicide is an acceptable alternative to life’s problems. Social constructs are human inventions that can be so entrenched that they become social expectations and take on a hegemonic life of their own.
Core Strategies
The overall strategy approach to outreach in the ever increasing environment of technological widgetry, that is what is in, what youth are doing at the moment regarding social media and social engagement through technology. The strategic approach needs to be a nimble, a quick response ability, in order to be relevant to youth where they are and what they are into. This will be done by an Observe, to Orient, to Decide and Act strategy. After the OODA returning immediately to further Observation. This is a perpetual cycle of evaluation is intentional and will help us stay relevant. By adopting this mindset (with a particular emphasis on the two O’s), better strategy and intentional change will lead to responsive adaptation and help to change trends.[2]
In addition, mental health is a rapidly changing field with new discoveries regarding brain science happening daily. Hold On strives to provide innovative solutions and support in the face of a vastly undiscovered and underfunded field couple d with tried and true intervention techniques.
Hold On provides services, training, advocacy, and resources (STAR) for parents, peers, teachers, and adolescents experiencing depression and suicidal ideation with the goal of decreasing adolescent suicidal behavior.
[1] Source: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc-charts/leading_causes_of_death_age_group_2014_1050w760h.gif
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
[2] Source: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_strategic_plan_is_dead._long_live_strategy
Paul Myskiw
Founder
Paul Myskiw, Executive Director and founder of Hold On, is a native of Colorado. He has a Master’s degree in Humanities and advanced graduate work in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Psychology, AISIT training, LivingWorks Faith trainer, Working Minds- Suicide Prevention in the Workplace trainer, as well as Crisis Intervention Training. As a former counselor for adolescent and adult inpatient psychiatric hospitals Paul offers a unique perspective on adolescent development and behavior. Over the last 30 years Paul has created several successful community programs aimed at assisting youth through adolescents including after school programs, mentoring programs and coaching. Paul has spoken to 100's of groups over the years and recently did a podcast on suicide awareness.
His story - I had these thoughts before. In small doses they had come, but they always left. This time was different. My mind was flooded with doubt and pain. I was overwhelmed with numbness and confusion.
My head was spinning with thoughts at an overwhelming pace. “I could find out… I could know...if God is real- you could know- you could know…if you were dead.” Somehow these thoughts did not seem out of the range of possibility, in some strange way they seemed almost comforting. The thoughts continued and I replayed those questions in my head, over and over and over again.
I placed the cold steel of a .38 special to my head and pulled the trigger in an attempt to take my life. I was 15. I fully intended to die. I wanted to escape the pain, anger and sadness. Death did not come that day. Out of that experience, I found hope, I found life. I found purpose.
Out of that experience and over the years I have come to realize that, regardless of my feelings at the time, I was really not alone. It was my own fear and shame that kept me silent and suffering alone. Additionally, I did not realize the impact my life "gone" would have on those I left behind. A few years ago I went to family members and friends and had some frank conversations about my attempt and the impact it had then and still has on their lives. Reflecting back, the pain I had was temporary whereas the joy and love I have now is overwhelming and lasting. If I had died that day how different would the world be? The lives I have touched over the years; those I helped off the ledge; the joy and hope I have imparted to others. Over the last 30 years I have spoken to thousands of youth sharing my story of hope and of holding on and I am always willing to do so.