The Purpose
The grieving mother sat at the table, wiping tears that never seemed to stop. Her 19 year old daughter, Katja, had taken a leathal dose of medications designed to lift the depression that had colored her tenage life a hopeless grey. How do you navigate the trip through such devastating grief?
If you are Barb Patterson, you look for a way to help others in similar circumstances. And so Katja Kare - a conference designed to educate a community and support the bereaved - was born.
It began with a sad truth; that those grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide receive very little support because of the societal stigma attached to the experience. Barb, and those who joined her cause, hoped to take suicide out of the emotional closets and generate information and support for the suffering. Little did she know at the time her dream was conceived that Dr. David Satcher, our nation's Surgeon General, would soon declare suicide a "serious public health problem" and encourage communities across the country to do what Barb was poised to do.
