Mother working to help teens with mental health, bullying issues on Long Island
BRENTWOOD, Long Island (WABC) -- A mother on Long Island is on a mission to make sure no parent goes through the pain she felt and still feels. Her daughter tried to take her own life after she was constantly bullied at school.
Shortly after that attempt, her daughter died.
Her mother is working to help teens cope with bullying and mental health issues.
Bernice Simmons, 16, recorded a video shortly before trying to take her own life.
"She woke me up and she's like 'I'm so sorry, and I was like 'What's wrong?" and she cut her face. She cut her arm, she had cut her stomach," said her mother, Sheree Sibilly Simmons.
Her mother then rushed her to South Side Hospital where she told the staff she was being bullied at school in Brentwood both in person and online.
"Ninth grade was rough. She came home - she was complaining that she was being bullied and I really didn't think it was that serious, but it was for her," she added.
Shortly after Simmons' suicide attempt, she died of an unrelated pulmonary embolism.
Several years after her death, a youth suicide prevention center opened in Riverhead, making it the first on Long Island.
Calming music is one form of therapy at Rise Life Services, offering coping and self-esteem-building workshops to at-risk youth from as young as five years old to 24 years old.
The program is sometimes just as powerful for the instructors.
"My grandmother attempted suicide. She actually shot herself but it was unsuccessful. Just coming here, it has kind of been therapeutic for me as well," said staff member Winter Landmann-Herd.
"This is where we make the magic work for the individuals that we support," said Chief Operations Officer Jeanette Permenter.
Permenter gave Eyewitness News a tour of the prevention center.
"Of course, fitness is one of the biggest things you can do to release stress," she added.
More than 50 youths are enrolled with programs running anywhere from three months to over a year.
The services are free through state funding to support minorities and low-income families struggling with mental health.
Sibilly Simmons shared her story just days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents on Capitol Hill who lost their children to suicide.
"It's not fair for me to say it's your fault - it's not. It was my fault because I missed the sign," she said.
One year after the center opened, Governor Kathy Hochul extended the funding from one million the first year to now a total of five million for the first five years.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or text TALK to 741-741 or visit 988lifeline.org/ for free confidential emotional support 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Even if it feels like it, you are not alone.
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