About The Sky Center
The Sky Center is the primary hub where the programming of the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project (NMSIP), takes place.
We provide a full range of prevention, intervention and postvention services to address the complex range of issues that contribute to elevated risk for youth suicide.
We have deep, working partnerships with local schools, hospitals and other community service providers. We work closely with academic institutes offering training and internships for current or rising clinicians. We are locally funded and rely on the community to provide funding to enable our services to be delivered at no cost with limited barriers. We recognize this public health crisis needs a strong, informed and unified community response.
Reason for Being
New Mexico has the highest youth suicide rate in the country, making the need for services aimed at reducing both youth suicide and related risk behaviors in Santa Fe and surrounding counties critical.
The following data highlight the urgency of this issue nationally, within New Mexico, and for vulnerable populations.
Among children aged 10 to 14, death by suicide is now more common than death from traffic accidents (National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).
39.8% of Santa Fe County high school students felt persistent sadness or hopelessness; 17.3% seriously considered suicide; and 8.8% attempted suicide in the past twelve months (NM Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey 2017).
39% of LGBTQ youth including more than half of transgender and non-binary youth report seriously considering suicide in the past 12 months (National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health, Trevor Project, 2019).
Our History
The Sky Center of New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project has been fighting this public health crisis for more than twenty years.
The New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project (NMSIP), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was established in 1994 in response to growing concern about the increasing number of youth suicides in Santa Fe County and Northern New Mexico.
Our Commitment to Community
The Sky Center offers a model of collaboration that promotes the health of youth, families, and communities.
Youth live their lives not solely as individuals, but embedded in families and communities. As a result, we connect youth to these larger support systems in everything we do. Our counseling services and wellness groups focus on fostering life skills and social connections. We recognize that it takes a village to take on the public health crisis of youth suicide and ultimately transform pain to hope and despair to wellness.
Suicide Statistics
The Need for Suicide Prevention and Intervention Services
- Nationally among children aged 10 to 14, death by suicide is now more common than death from traffic accidents (National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).
- New Mexico ranks FIRST in the nation for youth suicide ages 15-19. (CDC Wonder, 2017)
- 40% of Santa Fe County high school students felt persistent sadness or hopelessness; 17% seriously considered suicide; and almost 10% attempted suicide in the past twelve months (NM Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey 2017).
- 40% of LGBTQ youth (including more than half of transgender and non-binary youth) report seriously considering suicide in the past 12 months (National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health, Trevor Project, 2019).
These statistics do not reveal the true extent of the problem: the devastating loss of promise and hopefulness in a young life that is impossible to quantify. Unfortunately, suicide is a largely ignored issue until it is brought to the forefront by the incomprehensible death of a child.