Start where you are
What brought you here?
Choose the path that feels closest. Each one begins with something you can do now.
I need help for myself
Take the next safe step. You do not have to explain everything first.
Continue →Choose this pathI’m worried about someone
Ask directly, stay present, and bring in more support.
Continue →Choose this pathI’m a young person
Words you can use with an adult—even when you do not know how to begin.
Continue →Choose this pathI’m living after a loss
Support for shock, anger, guilt, difficult dates, and the questions grief carries.
Continue →If you may not be safe
Stay for the next ten minutes.
Move toward another person. Put distance between you and anything dangerous. Tell someone, “I do not feel safe being alone right now.” Then call or text 988 together.
Walk through the next 10 minutesPractical, human guidance
Know what to do next.
No perfect speech is required. These guides give you clear actions and words you can actually use.
Warning signs
Learn the difference between warning signs, risk factors, and immediate danger.
Read guide →GuideAsk the question
Simple, direct words for asking someone whether they are thinking about suicide.
Read guide →GuideFor parents
What to do when your child says they want to die or may not be safe.
Read guide →GuideSafety planning
Build a personal plan with warning signs, people, professional help, and safer surroundings.
Read guide →GuideWhat happens at 988
Understand what to expect when you call, text, or chat.
Read guide →GuideTrusted resources
National and Kansas City-area starting points, with dates and verification notes.
Read guide →Kansas City and Missouri
Start with locally relevant, official resource pathways.
The regional guide links to Missouri crisis services, county-based community mental-health directories, Kansas City public-health resources, and suicide-loss support. Every listing explains what still needs direct confirmation.
Explore local resourcesHelp for the moment you are actually in
More than general advice.
These guides address the words, fears, and decisions that often make reaching out difficult. Each page begins with something you can do now.
I want the pain to stop
A direct path for the moment when pain—not death—is what you want to escape.
How to say “I’m not safe”
Short messages you can copy, send, or show to another person.
When I feel like a burden
Challenge the belief without minimizing the pain beneath it.
Five actions that help
Ask, be there, help keep them safe, connect, and follow up.
What to say—and avoid
Supportive words, common mistakes, and how to repair a hard conversation.
After a suicide attempt
Practical support, follow-up, privacy, and safety after discharge.
My child is self-harming
Respond with direct safety questions, care, and professional assessment.
Emergency mental-health evaluation
What may happen, what to bring, and what to ask before leaving.
Alcohol, drugs, and suicide risk
Why intoxication can increase danger and how to respond without delay.
The first days after a suicide
Gentle, practical guidance for shock, decisions, children, and privacy.
You are not alone
Leave a little hope for someone else.
Read carefully moderated encouragement, share something that helped you keep going, or submit a hopeful message for review.
Your story is still being written. You deserve support before you have the perfect words for what hurts.
A life, not a statistic
Her name was Leah.
She was a daughter, a sister, a smile, a laugh, and a future. She was deeply loved.
Leah’s story is not here to explain one impossible moment. It is here to help another person be heard sooner—and to remind the rest of us to ask, listen, stay, and act.
Meet Leah and learn why this exists →Leah, in the moments that mattered
A life made of little moments.
Road trips and puppies, cheer days and friends, spaghetti, laughter, family, and ordinary days made extraordinary because Leah was in them.
The Leah Matters promise
We will ask the hard question.
We will make room for honest answers.
We will not look away.
Every life contains chapters no one else can see. We choose compassion before judgment, connection before silence, and continued support after the crisis has passed.
Support Leah’s living legacy
Help turn remembrance into connection and action.
Your support can help Leah Matters build professionally reviewed youth and parent education, verified community resources, suicide-loss guidance, and careful outreach in Leah’s name.
Fundraising is kept separate from immediate-help pathways. The giving page explains current payment, privacy, and tax-status safeguards.
Trust is a safety feature