Kellen Cares nonprofit offers suicide prevention education

Spokane mother Kimber Erickson wants to spread education on suicide prevention, including insight on depression in boys and young men and how their brains can be wired toward addictions and violent self-harm.

After her 19-year-old son Kellen died in January 2020 by suicide, she and her husband Mike Erickson founded the KellenCares Foundation. Erickson said her son was struggling by his junior year at Ferris High School. He did get therapy and graduated, but she now understands more.

On Saturday, the KellenCares group will host an all-day seminar for parents, teachers and counselors at Summit Church on the South Hill. Along with break-out sessions for age groups, the event is scheduled to include keynote speaker Dr. Michael Gurian, a Spokane family counselor and author of more than 30 books, including “Saving Our Sons” and “The Minds of Girls.” The seminar cost is $55, and Erickson said scholarships are available.

The Ericksons’ foundation, started in November 2020, often capitalizes CARES in the foundation name, to stand for community, awareness, resources, education and support, she said.

“Our mission to help boys and young men just because after we lost him, we started really looking at the statistics, and boys are so much more likely to die by suicide,” Erickson said. “It’s not that they attempt more. Girls actually attempt more, but boys do it more by lethal means. Their brains are wired to do a more sudden act.”

She said her son did have therapy for his depression during the second part of his junior year, off and on, and then heavy therapy when he had a breakdown right before he graduated. He did an intensive outpatient program.

“I do believe that marijuana use in his case led to some of that,” she said. “I think it increased his anxiety and doing the research that I’ve done on cannabis and potency of it these days compared with in the 1980s and early 90s, if you’re already anxious and depressed, it is not necessarily going to help you and it’s probably going to harm you.”

Gurian has argued for more understanding of male development in light of addictions, violence and self-harm. He has said that boys who are depressed are biochemically more inclined to fight or flight.

“Males’ biochemistry is 10 to 20 times higher testosterone than females,” said Gurian, for a Nov. 9, 2018, article in The Spokesman-Review. “That floods all the cells including the brain, and that’s how the brains are set up ahead of time in utero.”

He co-founded the Gurian Institute that conducts research and training to help boys and girls thrive, applying research on brain science, development, emotional intelligence, motivation and depression.

“When you have depressed males, you’re going to have more fight or flight, so you will have more of them who will become violent than females when they’re depressed. That includes more suicides – male suicides are four times higher than females – and violence against others.”

Erickson said workshops will be broken up to apply to elementary, middle school and high school ages. Gurian is expected to delve into research and ways to support boys.

“There is a lot of good scientific information about the brain, and Dr. Gurian is going to get into addictions and the digital world, and building resilience in boys,” Erickson said.