Heart of Art—Suicide Prevention through the Arts
This article originally published on September 11, 2025 in the Ledger Dispatch Newspaper. Click here to view the article on their website or read below.
By Meghan Joy “mojo” O’Keefe
September is Suicide Prevention Month. The benefits of arts, culture, and creativity are boundless. Scores of studies explore how the arts impact wellness and are core to successful suicide prevention strategies. Organizations worldwide are using the arts to nurture communities and move people into healing.
Inner City Arts is a California arts organization using the arts to prevent suicide and uplift lives twenty-four hours a day. Founded in 1989, their website is a testament to the power of the arts in health and wellness. Providing you and your community with a free downloadable PSA kit, they give everyone access to fun, contemporary, high-quality art and resources that feel good. Curated to inspire hope, optimism, and encouragement, Inner City Arts directly consults with mental health professionals and hires student and young adult artists to create Fine Media Arts that can support anyone moving through suicidality (more commonly called “suicidal ideation”).
The American Legion Auxiliary understands the arts’ role in healing and wellness. This September, its blog pays close attention to the power of the arts in suicide prevention.
“There are so many ways that art and music and writing — all of the creative arts — can help,” said Jillian Thompson, creative arts therapist/music therapist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “It provides a way to self-express when you don’t actually have the words. So many times, we know how we feel, we know what we need to say, we just don’t have the right words to say it.” Sometimes we aren’t ready to say it yet, but the arts are there to help us move through that mire.
When we have depression or anxiety or other symptoms that lead to suicidal ideation, it can be challenging to focus and be motivated. Thompson says, “Music can really help the brain to focus in and motivate. There are a lot of ways it can help—it can control our heart rate, it can help blood pressure, all of our vital signs, it can reduce stress, and the beauty of it is it’s very adaptable and very individualized.”
The article “Performing Arts in Suicide Prevention Strategies: A Scoping Review” at the National Library of Medicine concludes that evidence supporting the use of the arts for wellness continues to grow. This review of thirty-five studies spanning from 1981 to 2021 shows that the performing arts have been successfully implemented in suicide prevention programs.
“The arts, in fact, strengthen a relationship with cultural identity, and their use can have positive effects on mental and physical well-being by promoting self-understanding, expression, confidence, self-esteem, and both verbal and nonverbal communication.” Dance and creative movement allow people with mental health challenges to communicate without words while increasing physical activity. Writing, dancing, and listening to music in a group setting deepen mutual support and cohesion. The process of making art and the creative expression that is born organically out of that process is “an engaging emotional experience that can powerfully contrast with the implicit destructiveness of suicide behaviors.”
Amador County has one of the highest suicide rates in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health. Since our population is so small, our county is paired with these six small, rural counties: Alpine, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne. Together, we have the third-highest suicide rate in the state of California.
We all know that creativity is central to human life, especially when you are living in the country. But in September, we must reflect on how we can show up fully and for the long haul to spread the joy of the arts throughout every part of our community. How can you be part of connecting and creating? What can we do together to create more joy and unite our communities? Can we let go of our limiting beliefs and build cohesion by imbuing every aspect of our community with arts, culture, and creativity? Every one of us has a role in suicide prevention, and it starts with community building.
The Amador County Arts Council (Amador Arts) staff, board, and advisors are artists, cultural practitioners, and teaching artists who have been impacted by suicide and self-harm. Together, we uphold an organizational and individual commitment to educate the community on the healing benefits of arts, culture, and creativity.
We invite you to join us monthly for the Creative Share Circle, where all kinds of artists at all skill levels share their artsy stuff and discuss how the arts heal, help, and hold them. This free, monthly event occurs at 5 PM on the last Thursday of the month at 26 Main Street, Jackson.
Amador County Arts Council (501c3) was established in 1982 as a designated Local Partner to the California Arts Council to catalyze arts, culture, and creativity by helping artists and organizations, collecting arts data, and producing performances. Visit our website to learn more: amadorarts.org or contact us at info@amadorarts.org or (209) 256-8166.
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