Wickenburg, Arizona (PRWEB) March 17, 2012

The Meadows, a world-class trauma and addiction center in Wickenburg, Arizona, is a gold sponsor of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Out of the Darkness Campus Walk at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, on Saturday, March 31 from 10:00am to noon. A team from The Meadows will also be participating in the walk.

Last spring, AFSP launched its inaugural Out of the Darkness Campus Walk campaign. The Campus Walk, patterned after AFSPs highly successful Community Walk will take place again in 2012 at colleges and high schools across the country. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for people ages 15-24, only accidents and homicides are higher. For college students specifically, suicide is the second leading cause of death, just behind accidents.

The goal of the ASU Walk is to create awareness and raise more funds for aggressive mental health research and programs for college and high school students within the local community. The ASU Walk hopes to raise $ 20,000.

We are pleased to support this very important event, said Jim Dredge, The Meadows CEO. The Out of the Darkness Campus Walk campaign helps bring attention to the need for more suicide prevention education.

Steve Schiro, the AFSP Field Advocate in Arizona, became involved with the organization after his son, who was a senior at ASU, took his life last year. My wife and I are both educators and we didnt see the signs. We needed to learn more and we found AFSP, Schiro said. Both he and his wife now serve on the board of the Arizona Chapter. Schiro added that awareness for students to see the signs of depression and suicide will bring the subject out into the open so people can talk about it and realize that there isnt a stigma and there are alternatives.

For more information on how to participate in the walk, please call 480-227-4230 or visit

http://bit.ly/Anb19O.

A body of research indicates that there is a correlation between trauma and suicidal behaviors. The Meadows is an industry leader in treating trauma through its inpatient and workshop programs. To learn more about The Meadows work with trauma and addiction contact an intake coordinator at (866) 807-3778 or visit http://www.themeadows.com.

AFSP is the leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those impacted by suicide. Since 1987, AFSP has invested over $ 10 million in new studies, as well as provided education and information through public workshops, trainings, our adolescent and college educational films, publications and public service announcements addressing teen depression.

For over 35 years, The Meadows has been a leading trauma and addiction treatment center. In that time, they have helped more than 20,000 patients in one of their three centers or in national workshops.The Meadows world-class team of Senior Fellows, Psychiatrists, Therapists and Counselors treat the symptoms of addiction and the underlying issues that cause lifelong patterns of self-destructive behavior. The Meadows is a Level 1 psychiatric hospital that is accredited by the Joint Commission.