An annual suicide awareness event is marking its fifth year on Saturday, and the work to provide education and resources to the community have been working.
The Mario C. Rivera Suicide Awareness Event, presented by the Solida Car Club, was started in 2020 to honor the memory of Rivera, who died by suicide in 2018. The event features a lowrider car and bike show, live music, food, and with information on mental health, including suicidal ideation. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Jacobs Center in San Diego. Elizabeth Munoz, co-founder and CEO of Jr’s Trauma Care Initiative, was approached by Rivera’s cousin and president of the car club, Sergio Monterrosa, who had been looking for a way to put something together for a few years and needed help.
“He’d imagined bringing the lowrider community into it because he felt like they didn’t really know about suicide, so we decided to partner up,” she says. “It’s quite interesting, because the car club community is usually a community that does not really speak on mental health; it’s taboo. That first year, a lot of the car club individuals were coming to our booth and obtaining mental health information and asking questions. Last year, we saw such a change where it’s not such a stigma anymore, and they’re actually reaching out to us, not waiting for the suicide awareness event to obtain information. Or, they’re reaching out to us and letting us know that they have a family member that’s going to be calling because they told them and our services, but they want to make sure we take care of them. It’s been so great.”
Jr’s Trauma Care Initiative was started in 2019 by Munoz and her husband, in memory of their son, Juan Carlos Munoz Jr., who was killed in a random act of violence in 2015 at the age of 18. As Munoz and her family were dealing with this sudden loss, she sought out mental health assistance for her own depression and suicidal ideation. As a nurse, she says that despite having all of the markers that are said to make access easier — good insurance through her career as a nurse, an education, no language barrier — it took three months to get an initial appointment, where she was told her needs were “too complicated.” She was referred to a third party and this October will make 10 years in which that third party never returned her calls for help. During that time, she tried to take her own life and later ended up paying $275 out of her own pocket each week for mental health services. She didn’t want others to have to suffer through the same obstacles, so Jr’s Trauma Care Initiative was created to provide services that include therapy for individuals, couples, families, and children; a response team, in partnership with local police departments, that responds to incidents of crime that include homicide, domestic violence, sexual assault, robbery, and human trafficking by sending two team who share the lived experience of the victims, and a clinician; their DKAY (Deterring Kids And Youth) program, which mentors kids through the juvenile justice system, the probation department, gang intervention programs within police departments; and community outreach at libraries, community centers, and community events.
“I said we could provide some awareness and education, talk about depression and anxiety and how depression leads into that suicidal ideation, bringing resources on not just our organization, but other organizations that provide , as well,” she said of her organization’s work with the Mario C. Rivera event. Rivera was in his early 20s when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Munoz says, describing him as “very loving, caring, very close to his family” and someone who loved music and who was said to be very happy. She says the family didn’t quite understand the diagnosis initially, but over the next few years, they noticed changes and would take him to the hospital where some inpatient treatment occurred, sometimes some follow-up services. “Unfortunately, because of his schizophrenia and his depression, he committed suicide and took his own life in 2018,” she says.
At the community event in his memory, there will be information on signs to look for with regard to suicidal ideation. The San Diego County Suicide Prevention Council’s “Annual Report to the Community 2024” states that there were 363 deaths by suicide in 2023 among county residents, and that in 2022, the rate of emergency visits for nonfatal suicidal ideation increased for women and girls, people 10 to 24 years old, Hispanics, and those living in the North Central Region.
Charles Walker, a licensed marriage and family therapist, is the director of mental health at Jr’s Trauma Care Initiative and says that some signs include anytime a person makes comments about how they’re going to die or that they want to take their own life. Too often, he says, people brush those comments aside and assume someone is using dark humor, but it’s important to ask for clarification when that happens and to ask if the person is really OK. Another sign is when a person starts to give away their possessions or large sums of money, or seems to be getting their affairs in order. Then, whether they have access to weapons or some other way to harm themselves, is also a sign to look out for. When there’s a barrier to accessing those tools, it can allow for enough time to seek help.
“If there’s suicide that occurs in a family, that’s completely disruptive to any family. The first thing we want to do is we want to assess those family and make sure that they themselves aren’t experiencing that. We’ve noticed that there are high levels of suicidal ideations for families who have experienced suicide losses, so we want to make sure that their safety is paramount,” Walker says. “You’re not alone. There are so many people out there who experience suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts, and if you’re experiencing this, always reach out. If you’re having the thoughts and you’re like, ‘I’m not going to do anything,’ I think it’s even more important before getting to a point where we might be in crisis. We can always process this before we ever get to that point. The biggest thing is that you’re not alone. I know it feels like you are, but you’re definitely not alone.”
