Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) hosted a suicide awareness and prevention event, organized a yellow "human ribbon" and held a 5K run on the flight deck in support of suicide awareness and prevention, July 19 and 22.

The events were dedicated to the awareness and prevention of suicide and the negative mental health stigmas that may occur when a Sailor seeks help.

"With the return to homeport, we needed people to start thinking about mental health post deployment," said Yeoman 1st Class Kaila Spradlin, who leads the suicide awareness and prevention committee aboard CVN 77. "Many people have gone through tough times during this deployment. You never know what can trigger you to do something, even if you don't think you need help."

This is where the kick off suicide awareness and prevention event came into play. Although September is Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month, having an event early allowed for the discussion to begin amongst Sailors, according to Spradlin.

"The event is a way to get together and show that we are a united front," said Spradlin. "The topic is not always in the forefront of people's brain, so the event was to refresh Sailors on the cause and reiterate everything they have available to them."

Senior Chief Navy Counselor Kim Lewis helped organized the "human ribbon."

"We coordinated the human ribbon when they did the sexual assault awareness and prevention ribbon," said Lewis. "We wanted to do two different ribbons since it was something we had never done before."

For Lewis, the goal was to have a common theme among all Sailor advocacy programs.

After the ribbon, Sailors gathered to begin the 5K run.

"All of the Sailors still had on their yellow shirts from that morning's ribbon, so it was nice to see that common theme," said Lewis.

Sailors who wish to seek help can speak to a suicide awareness and prevention advocate, a chaplain or the deployment resiliency counselor.

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For more news from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), visit http://www.navy.mil/.