Host Kent Corso interviews Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon about the state’s “WY We Care” initiative and the "WY We Talk Survivors Campaign. They discuss the importance of talking openly about mental health and suicide prevention. Gov. Gordon shares how the small-town community support he experienced, drove him to encourage the same approach in every community state-wide. The Governor reminds us that loved ones and neighbors can be crucial first supports alongside professionals. In describing the “WY We Talk Survivors” campaign, Dr. Corso and Governor Gordon emphasize how survivors offer unique perspective, hope, and practical insight without glorifying attempts. They mention one tagline: "Suicide is not the answer. Just ask an attempt survivor" and share other reseources such as training that the state is offering.

Takeaways:

• The importance of community support in addressing mental health and suicide prevention cannot be understated.
• Initiatives like We Care are essential in promoting open conversations about mental health across the state.
• Survivor stories provide unique insights into the struggles of suicidal thoughts and the hope that follows.
• Educating families about mental health is crucial, especially in light of recent tragedies within communities.
• Seeking help for mental health should be viewed as an act of courage and not a sign of weakness.
• Programs that focus on preventative maintenance for mental health can significantly reduce suicide attempts.

For more information on mental health support, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

For more information on Prosper, go to the website

Hi, my name is Kent Corso and I'm your host for this episode of One Minute Can Save a Life.

While I am a licensed clinical psychologist, none of these guests are my patients, nor does anything I say constitute medical advice.

The views conveyed during our conversations do not reflect the views, positions or policies of any private or public organization.

This is simply a series of conversations with people who have some connection to hardship, suicide, mental health, or loss.

There's so much we can learn from one another.

So let's get started.

Today our guest is Governor Mark Gordon, the governor of Wyoming.

As I understand it, he is ranked number one in popularity ratings.

Sorry to embarrass you about that, Governor Gordon, but it is an accolade that I think is worth mentioning.

Please introduce yourself.

Oh, well, thank you.

The 33rd governor of Wyoming.

Never anticipated I'd be here and it is.

That's an honor.

That is remarkable.

But only, I guess, probably good for bragging points.

We always appreciate having you on the podcast, Governor Gordon, and this is the third time you are our guest, so thank you for that.

Of course, we're talking about mental health and suicide prevention.

So if you wouldn't mind just giving us a little bit of a background and maybe rationale behind your why We Care initiative that might help set the stage for our listeners.

Sure.

Well, I grew up in a pretty small town In Wyoming, about 280 people.

We lived quite a ways out of town.

But the importance of community was really key.

And in growing up, I sort of grew up.

Some of the older kids in the neighborhood ended up going to Vietnam.

I wasn't quite in that same group of individuals, so ultimately the draft ended before I was called.

But I watched some of them come back.

And in particular, one of my close neighbors, very good friend, future business partner, I remember him coming back and just describing the challenges.

And, you know, community again was just such an important part to the ability to be able to sort of talk things through.

And so, you know, people didn't really understand maybe some of the things that were going on.

In the fullness of time, it became clear to me that as a community, a small community, we really needed to depend on each other.

We needed to have a better understanding of what we could do.

My family's always been about service and in the process of sort of following in behind my neighbor, John Schiffer, who was the fellow that went off to be a river rat in Vietnam, I ended up dealing a lot with mental health issues, local organizations and others.

A little bit older in my time having A young family.

My wife sadly died on a highway one morning.

My daughters were 4 and 2.

Trying to understand what to do with that, I found myself reaching out and really asking for help.

I think it was because I grew up in that kind of an environment, and I thought, you know, if this is working at a community level, if were being fairly successful doing this, maybe what we should do is extend this larger.

You know, it was not about, I'm going to be a tough guy and I'm going to weather it all.

It was not about whining or complaining.

It was about, and these are things that I need help in.

And reaching out to people and having them respond was something that seemed important and then I guess is within the fullness of time, you know, just having a better sense of how important it is that we do care about our neighbors and that people understand that they can ask for help and it's not a sign of weakness.

That's great.

I really appreciate how you've described all of that.

Governor, if I can step back for a moment and just highlight something I think you said, one of the things you said was that we learned, or at least you learned within your home community how to communicate and how to help one another.

And so it made logical sense to you to impart that an approach on a state level.

You also mentioned something I think that's really important for our listeners, and that is we're not talking about complaining or whining.

We're talking about some other type of talk.

I often hear folks, maybe in the older generations, maybe either Gen X or even the baby boomers, discuss how we never used to talk, and we seem pretty fine.

So I do want to ask you, do we need to talk differently than we did back then?

Is it that the world has changed since back then?

What's your sense of why we should talk?

Well, my sense of why we should talk is because we are connected and I think feel comfortable.

And as much as I heard all along about how, you know, we never used to do that, or people didn't talk that way when I was growing up or whatever they might have said as a kid, paying attention, we just talked a little bit differently.

We got to some of the same issues.

We didn't maybe use the language that we do today, but people just, you know, in small communities.

And I remember this from actually talking to.

And I may have mentioned this before, when my daughters were 4 and 2, I was so anxious that the death of their mother not be something that was going to define their lives.

It Would anyway, but I mean something that they could move with.

And the person I was talking to, a professional, said, I'm glad to talk to you.

We can have these conversations.

I'm glad to talk to them.

But you have good friends.

And maybe they don't have the necessarily the training that I do, but they are also compassionate and wonderful.

I think that encapsulates it quite well.

Governor Gordon, it's not that we shouldn't turn to professionals, but that may not be the answer all the time.

That may not be the answer initially when we have something we're struggling with.

So I really appreciate you highlighting that.

Oftentimes our loved ones are the best people for us to turn to.

They know us best, they care about us, they don't want to see us struggle.

So it is sort of this perfect match of our need at the time and what they, of course, as a loved one, would be happy to provide for us.

Right.

And I think that was one of the things that was most important in my mind about the why We Care initiative was to kind of de emphasize the, for lack of a better phrase, ivory towerness of this is a mental illness and there's a, you know, there's a professional who can do with this, or maybe it's a chemical solution or whatever.

Those may be things that are on the table.

But it really was to make it feel more comfortable to be able to talk, to make sure that care was affordable, that we had quality of care, that people understood what the expectations could be.

If that makes sense.

That makes perfect sense to me.

You're talking about why we care as an overarching term.

And then of course, part of caring is talking.

Right.

So how do we have that dialogue?

And when I hear you mention why we care and why we talk, what I think about is it's getting the right person to the right other person at the right time.

And I can't think of a poor time to have someone reach out to loved ones.

It's often the first step, right?

So it's sort of like that's never going to be harmful.

Let's at least take that step locally within our family or our friend circles or co workers, what have you.

And I think from my perspective, the other piece of that is often if somebody approaches you.

And I can think of a young man that was in my daughter's and son's class who became a counselor eventually and he's, I think, doing very well.

So I'm thrilled about this.

But when he approached me at one point talking about Some of the challenges that he was having in his life, just adapting and other things.

At first you sort of feel, I think I'm ill equipped to be able to deal with this.

And.

But I think we can all listen and I think that's a really important thing.

We can all be empathetic.

But it became clear to me that maybe there was something, and I think this is what I've carried into the governorship.

Maybe there was something more we could do to help equip both, let's say first responders, but most importantly others.

So.

So that when somebody came to you with, you know, a life defining moment or something catastrophic that they were, might not be contemplating that you didn't feel like you were totally ill equipped to deal with it.

Exactly.

And Governor, you've been out visiting communities, talking to people like school counselors, talking to people who are loss survivors.

Of course, those are loved ones of those who have died by suicide, as well as mental health providers, law enforcement officers, educators.

You've talked to maybe even a few attempt survivors.

What are you hearing about this idea?

What are you hearing about talking more?

What I'm hearing is a certain amount of liberation I think people have always felt and we still deal with this, you know, we shouldn't talk about that or how do we engage in this conversation.

I don't think anybody wants to invade somebody's space and that's certainly understandable.

But what I'm hearing from survivors, and I think this is kind of what we're kind of getting to, why the survivor stories are so important, is I had no idea that this was going to be as, as traumatic as it was.

I now have so much more to live for.

I don't know what was happening at that point, but I feel a need to be able to talk about why you shouldn't feel compelled to, that this is the only alternative you have.

And I think survivors are saying that in different ways.

To me.

Yes, we are hearing it.

You're hearing it.

And I'm glad you brought up the why We Talk Survivors campaign.

They've got such insight into what it's like to be in that dark place.

And let's be clear, we don't ever want to glorify suicide.

We don't want to glorify attempts.

However, when we learn that someone has attempted, we've got to seek their input and learn more about what those dark moments are like so that we can better help others, maybe prevent others from going down that road or help others think of other things like alternatives to let them know that help is available.

So would it be okay if we talked a little bit about the why We Talk Survivors campaign?

Governor GORDON yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And just on that point, before you do, I, you know, there's been a couple of experiences that I've had that I think are noteworthy because of exactly what you just said about glorifying suicide.

And I remember a young gal that was and she's now doing quite well, but at the time she was in a particularly dark place.

And, you know, there was this notion, I think, among some of the parents that helped get her to the hospital after she had attempted that she was just asking for attention, that she was just behaving in a way and she should stop because that was just going to give others ideas.

It still doesn't sit quite right with me because I don't think that that's a logical and I understand we're not all thinking logically at those moments, but it's not clear to me that that's the sort of motivation that leads to that kind of ultimate decision.

And I think about another young man, a veteran who you may have met.

But his point is we don't often understand in those darkest moments just how important other people find us.

It's not a conceit thing.

It's just we don't understand what that loss is going to mean to others.

Right.

So I think that's a great way to say it.

When someone's in that dark moment and they're panicking and as you suggested, they're not thinking clearly, they are reflecting on so many negative aspects of their experience, negative aspects of their life, maybe negative thoughts and feelings about themselves.

And what is often blocked out or cloudy is all of the other reasons for living, all of the other loved ones who truly do care.

But this brings us back to a point you made earlier, and that is if we're not talking about it, we're not going to know that others care.

If I see a friend or a family member of mine struggling and I don't speak up and say, hey, are you doing okay?

You don't seem like yourself.

If I don't ask those hard questions about if they're thinking of ending their life, I'm not going to hear the answer.

I'm not opening a door that that gives that person in crisis the opportunity to experience that love, that, that affection, that care.

And I'm certainly not opening up a door to help them help themselves or to seek help.

Yeah, yeah.

Governor GORDON one of the things that we want to Share with our listeners has to do with why survivors voices are so important and why their perspective is so important.

So let me talk a little bit about the campaign, but would also insights and input.

We have four people who have attempted suicide and lived.

There are two males and two females are from various areas of the state.

And they have really experienced a transformation through this process.

Out of their darkest moments and their lowest points, they have now really evolved into a much more insightful and what I would say is a balanced person.

And when I say balanced, what I mean is they're able to experience grief or loss or really negative things while at the same time maintaining hope and preserving a sense of joy, however small it might be, for the other things going on in their lives.

They are such a mark of resilience in overcoming adversity.

And at the end of the day, who knows more about being suicidal than someone who's been there and has luckily lived through the experience?

And so one of the taglines that is associated with the campaign is suicide is not the answer.

Just ask a survivor.

So I wonder how you think that will be received by various folks throughout the state.

What I've seen, I don't know all the individuals, but what I've seen from those stories and what I'm hearing from, from those who have seen those stories is different view perhaps of, you know, this is actually more about strength than it is weakness.

It is, I think, hopeful to so many to just have a moment to reflect and kind of contemplate why, you know, the things you've said about, you know, how much more life a person can have.

And I really think that's been remarkable and, you know, all of these efforts, and I know we've been working on this for a while, it seems painfully slow to get momentum behind it.

But I see in communities where there are survivors telling their stories and it's being told in such a human way, it's not a like, oh, woe is me.

It's here are the things that are really that I learned.

These are the things that we can be hopeful about.

What I'm hearing is a, is more acceptance to be able to talk about this and more of an understanding that we need to be much more sensitive to how our peers are feeling or how our colleagues or just the people that are around us.

I like to use the word attentive.

You used the word sensitive.

I think coming from my background in military training, it's about having situational awareness.

Right.

And trying to be conscientious of those around you.

And how they're doing.

When I think of the quintessential mindset of a Wyoming, I think of the research that Dr. Carolyn Pepper at UW has published recently about how Wyomingites, especially men, may become suicidal if they start to feel like they're no longer useful.

It's that very practical rancher, minor farmer sort of perspective.

And yet this is going to happen in life whether you're a rancher or not.

We all go through phases of life that have transitions.

Whether it's children leaving home, whether it's the death of a parent, could be the change of one's job or even retirement itself.

And the more attentive we are to each other about those transitions we're going through, through, I think the more able we are to support one another.

And I agree.

And I think.

I think it is.

I think we all at times have this moment of perhaps really paralyzing doubt.

And it's a deep hole that seems to have the sides falling in all around you.

It's hard to grab, to figure out how to get out of that.

And that, I think, is part of what we were trying to be able to enable people to sort of throw the ladder down and at least have a place or two to hang on to.

Because when you find out that a friend has had those moments, maybe it gives you a little bit more to hide, to hang on to.

And, you know, just as you say, I think this, Am I worth it anymore?

That's such a dangerous place to be.

Because if you look at it and you get in that frame of mind, it's so easy to just find all the reasons.

And that's what I hear from these survivors, is I couldn't see any worth in my life.

I couldn't see any worth that I was to anybody.

Nobody would miss me.

I'm just going to be better for the world if I am not here afterwards.

It's not like this is the way I establish my worth.

It's getting more of an understanding of just how much people care about you.

Exactly.

And of course, we don't know who's struggling unless we are taking the time to care and to ask.

When I think of these attempt survivors, the words grit, persistence, perseverance, self reliance, independence, resilience, those are the words that come to my mind.

Fortunately, they made it through their attempt.

And in a way, they embody the very values that I think characterize the cowboy culture and many of the very hardened, resilient Wyoming residents.

I would agree.

And I think there's something to it about courage as well, in the sense that to come out of that kind of an experience.

I can think of two examples there.

A young man who horribly disfigured himself in his attempt, but now has an incredibly buoyant view of life and wants to be helpful to others and the courage to be able to step out and face.

He's now got a sort of a speech impediment and remanufactured jaw and other things.

And to be able to come out and speak as confidently as he can, you just have to say, now there is grit, there is courage, and there is perseverance.

And I think the other thing too is being able to.

And we've talked about this before, but in.

In those moments where we most depend, I think, on.

On somebody being there for us, sometimes we're as removed as we possibly can be.

And I think.

And we're hoping that we can sort of take the stigma away from seeking help and seeking mental health care and being able to contact a professional.

That's been the effort behind the 988 line.

And for me, this is the second example.

A young man who told me that he'd had several moments where he'd really pondered whether he was of any value to anybody.

And every time he reached out to the 988 line, he was reaching out to somebody in, you know, Florida or Missouri or California or somewhere else other than Wyoming.

And it wasn't that helpful.

It was, you know, the people walked through whatever they were supposed to walk through, but they had no idea where he lived.

They didn't know anything about the mountains in Wyoming or fishing or anything else.

And so having our legislature finally come through and fund that now means that we have people that.

That can relate.

And that's, I think, so key.

And you would know this better than I.

When you want to reach out, you want to reach out to somebody who maybe can get to you in a different frame of reference.

I think that's a great point.

We often find it easier to open up to those with whom we have common ground.

And so if we reach out to the 988 line and it is answered by folks in Wyoming, which, thank goodness the legislature did pass that, and now it is supported by those who are in wyoming.

There are two different centers, and around 90% of all contacts are answered by those two centers.

If they're busy and the lines are tied up, it will bump over to another state.

But 90% is a good amount.

And this is between 900 and 1,000 calls or texts per month.

So that's a pretty large volume.

And I think it's also a testament to the idea of build it and they will come.

If we make these resources available, people are going to take the opportunity, opportunity to use them.

And I think that's, again, it goes back to what you were saying a few minutes ago about talking and supporting and using these resources.

It's a testament that they're working from.

A government point of view, if this makes any sense.

You know, over 95% of those are resolved without having to call police, without having to call first responders or anything else.

And I think that speaks to.

Yeah, we all have such a, I think a built in kind of aversion, if that's the right word, to wanting to do that.

And maybe it's.

Yeah, I think you were talking about this a little bit before that independent, you know, streak that we prize so much here in the west.

But when you think about that, in fact, every time we do a branding, we get all the neighbors around.

Any time we're supposed to, you know, have a big event or we need help, the neighbors all come.

We all are volunteers for a fire department.

And this, it's, I get it, they're not necessarily comparable, but we can be, we can afford to be independent if we know that we have neighbors that are going to be there to help us.

That's right.

And we can afford to be independent if we know we have something like the crisis lifeline to give us some tips and give us some tools.

That doesn't mean we're reliant on that 988 line.

It we check in, we get some tools and we move on.

In fact, the types of tools that they help teach people have been shown to reduce suicide by 76% in terms of suicide attempt reduction.

And so I think contrary to what maybe some people believe, this is about seeking help at a critical moment and receiving not only support and human connectedness, but also some very practical ways to self manage what's happening in life.

And I would agree.

And I want to go back to that.

You know, I've got a fire in my haystack.

And so I go out there and I beat at it for a while, but suddenly I realize it's much bigger than I can do myself.

And that's when we have neighbors that are saying, hey, I saw smoke, I showed up.

That's when the volunteer fire department comes out with a fire truck.

And none of us, I mean none of us, we're happy to, you know, make sure they all get fed or whatever, but we're so grateful when they arrive.

And it's not a. I guess it's not a stigma to us to have them come.

That's what we expect.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And it's not as if every neighbor who comes is a firefighter.

They don't have to be those specialists.

It's that it takes unity and connectedness and just assistance, support.

Right.

I think one other similar comparison is this idea of preventative maintenance.

So when we try to think about mental health and seeking mental health care, one of the more practical reasons is it works like preventative maintenance for your tractor or your car or your motorcycle or whatever vehicle that you have that runs on a gas engine.

It requires periodic upkeep because when you do that, it functions better when you use it, and it functions for a longer life.

And so I think that's such an important way for folks to think about mental health.

It's not that you're broken.

It's not that there's something wrong with you.

It's not that you couldn't handle it.

It's just that a little bit of preventative maintenance here and there goes a long way.

You bet.

And I love that statistic you just gave it.

Was it 76% reduction?

And then I think you also said at one point there was a almost.

And I'm just wondering how these correlate.

But you said there was almost a. I can't remember exactly the percentage, but almost 100% that wouldn't try again.

Yes, that's the statistic around attempt behavior.

What we know from the research is that among those who attempt suicide, 7% will die on that first attempt, and the other 93% will live, 70% of whom will never attempt again.

And that's a critical statistic for us to focus on because it teaches us that a light bulb went on for that 70%.

They wake up in the hospital or wake up wherever they are when they attempt it, and they realize, oh, my gosh, I'm still alive.

And they learn something.

But, gosh, we don't have to go through that horrible experience in order to learn that.

We can learn from those who have gone through that horrible experience.

Ellen, why I love those two, those two in conjunction is the fact that it gives us a hope and a belief that we can make progress, which is, I think, what we're doing.

As I said, it's slow, but it's meaningful progress.

And I think it changes, at least to me.

Why I'm so encouraged is it changes the tenor of the conversation away from we shouldn't talk about this.

It'll give bad ideas to wait just a minute.

We're getting stronger, we're getting healthier, we're doing that preventative maintenance that is so key.

And to me, that's part of what this whole campaign has been about, to give us that direction and that hope and that motivation.

That's exactly right.

And even more so, it's how we talk about it at this point.

It's not why we should talk.

And if we should talk, it's much more specific to how we should talk.

You mentioned some trainings earlier.

We've got trainings that are going on throughout the year with Prosper.

Some of them are in person, some of them are virtual.

The wasp, the Wyoming alliance for Suicide Prevention, populates this calendar on the state website that gives all sorts of trainings of various types that are going on.

So I just want to spend a moment highlighting these for our audience in case someone who's listening is interested in getting some of this training.

There's also the Community Prevention Grant from the Wyoming Department of Health's Public Health Division.

They've been funding suicide prevention and substance use prevention efforts in every county statewide.

Why this is important is to what you said before about ivory tower stuff.

We want to empower communities to help themselves with best practices and tools.

We've got the Healthcare Based Suicide Prevention Workgroup, which has created a small grant process for Bighorn County, Campbell County Sublet and Converse Counties.

There were multiple counties who applied and those are the four that sort of were granted the money to improve policies and training and community collaboration.

So if you're listening right now and you live in Bighorn, Campbell, Converse or sublet and you haven't heard of the trainings going on in your community, please talk to your community prevention specialist.

Please go down to the Department of Health locally and find out where this training is happening.

What we're finding is that the more we pull together and get back to the basics of just being a good neighbor, the better things get.

I mean, we're seeing in places like Rock Springs and Casper a slight decrease in the suicides since last year.

We're seeing a 60% reduction in Lincoln county over the last three years.

We're seeing the veterans of Wyoming have fewer suicides over the last three years.

So these are really important pieces of progress.

Find out how Lincoln county got there.

Talk to your local veterans hospital or clinic.

Find out how they're getting there.

Yeah, no.

As we've been traveling around, I Might be talking about mining activity in one community.

And somebody will come over and say, hey, I just want to say something.

Thank you for bringing.

I mean, to me, it's nice that they say thank you.

And it's not about me.

I want to make that clear.

It's just nice that they say, you know, thank you for opening this conversation.

We're really having good conversations about mental health.

And there's kind of an eagerness improve the way we talk about mental health, the way we talk about suicide prevention, the things we can do for one another.

I do worry at times, and I think about this with the young man took his life here not long ago.

He apparently had.

He apparently had been a member of the J Foundation, which, you know, is that.

Pull your boots on and, and make sure you ask yourself and ask someone else how they're doing today.

And I'm glad that we're able to do that.

But there's something deeper that we.

And I'm.

I think the J Foundation is doing incredible work.

And it comes from a place of love that is just deep.

But it is more than just a system of things.

It's a commitment on the part of people to be there for their neighbors, to be there for their friends.

And even at times when maybe it seems awkward asking, you know, what's up today?

What's going on?

Do you want to take a moment?

Absolutely.

In fact, I think what we continue to see in communities, Governor Gordon, is that the parents are eager to learn more.

There have been three students who have died by suicide in the last month and a half.

And it's just, it's got to stop.

We've got to get our parents empowered and equipped and trained to be able to see the signs and help their children.

And so I just want to put one more plug in there.

These are trainings that you have funded.

I mean, these are free for anyone statewide.

And if you go to prospertogether.net you will see an area for free Wyoming trainings.

I think we also want to talk about all the efforts of wascop, which is the Wyoming association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police.

They are part of the sponsor and vehicle behind the why We Talk campaign.

It's important to mention their contribution here.

Finally, I think one thing to sort of wrap up with, Governor, is as we think about the recent loss of that student governor and other students who we've lost recently, the idea of postvention becomes more salient.

And of course, prevention is what we do before suicide.

Intervention is what we do when we know someone is struggling.

And postvention is what we do after a suicide.

It is just so important as a community based intervention to help communities heal, to prevent onlookers who are also maybe in a tough spot, preventing them from thinking, wow, it worked for that person.

Maybe suicide's a good idea for me, preventing the loss of a loved one to suicide from being experienced as traumatic.

These are the important results that postvention delivers and we've got to do more of it.

Oh, absolutely.

And I love that tagline suicide's not the answer or ask an attempt survivor.

That, that couldn't be more important here.

And to your point then I've, you know, I've often thought about how a community comes together after the, you know, a particularly difficult moment.

And it always seems that our youngest are the ones that are most, are most poignant and they always seem to be people that have everything going for them.

And you know, so that's, to me that suicide is not the answer.

Ask an attempt survivor.

And these are sort of the survivors we have have all gone on to do amazing things.

There's such a fullness in life and.

I love something you pointed out there.

So I want to shine a light on it for a moment.

Those struggling with suicidal thoughts or feelings have a ton of things going well for them.

And so it's important that we recognize that they have a lot to lo and that's why they're trying so desperately to hang on and why they prolong that decision to end their life.

So it's really important for all of us to recognize that we're going to see the signs in people who seem to be doing pretty well or people who seem to have a lot going for them.

It's not that we only see those signs in someone who is really hitting rock bottom.

Sure, we see it then, but we see it at many places up that ladder, if I can use the phrase you mentioned before.

Well, absolutely.

And you know, we started the conversation talking about the small community I had and the reliance we had on our neighbors.

And you know, that, that strength that came from being able to count on our neighbors.

One of the great things I think about Wyoming and one of my, my biggest hopes for this effort has been Wyoming is a fairly small state and we are all neighbors.

And it's so heartening to me to hear people talking about how we're just glad we're talking about this issue now, not just suicide, but mental health.

We've lost too many people and I feel freer now.

To be able to discuss this, and I.

There's just a momentum building there that I think is going to be very important for Wyoming's future.

I hope so.

I deeply appreciate your commitment to helping those who are struggling with mental health and suicide and substance misuse.

Governor, thank you so much for your time.

And thank you for all you've done for us.

Oh, well, thank you, Dr. Corso.

You're being there at times of crisis, and you're being there for helping people through those issues, but also just giving us some of the tools and the opportunities to be able to understand more about what we can do.

You have brought such a difference to our state.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

There's always hope, and we're going to tackle this.

Thank you for listening to this episode of One Minute Can Save a Life.

Take care of yourself.

Take care of your neighbor.

Be bold.

Ask the hard questions.

Because if you don't, who will?

Production support for One Minute Can Save a Life was provided by TKB Podcast Studio.

To find out more about our services, go to tkbpodcaststudio.

Com.