Canadian Artist Offers Limited Edition Prints to Raise Funds for the Creation of a Global Suicide Prevention Web Directory.

In the days before Google, interdisciplinary fine artist, Kenneth Hemmerick, created a Suicide Prevention Help (http://www.suicidepreventionhelp.com) website because he was shocked to discover that there are sites on the Internet that encourage people to kill themselves.

Essentially, the website is an open "friendship letter" for those who are despairing, and contemplating suicide. To date, over 345,000 people have visited the site, and he has answered letters from thousands of readers, offering a few kind words and links to online and offline resources.

Hemmerick is developing his website further with a Suicide Prevention Web Directory where researchers, professionals and lay people can find high quality resources relating to suicide and suicide prevention from around the world, including research, government programs and initiatives, community and other support programs and groups, treatment programs, categories for teens and young adults, news, reference, etc.

Hemmerick notes that there are many resources on the Web, but there are few central locations where one can browse related sites by category. He plans to make this directory available to other suicide prevention websites.

Googling "suicide prevention" yields 17,700,000 results. The suicide prevention Web directory will make it easier for Internet users to find resources and support.

In the US, suicide took the lives of 30,622 people in 2001 (CDC 2004), and in 2002, 132,353 individuals were hospitalized following suicide attempts; 116,639 were treated in emergency departments and released (CDC 2004).

He states, "it will take approximately six months to develop a comprehensive directory of approximately 4-6,000 reviewed quality sites." Kenneth has over five years' experience as a Web editor and consultant, and has reviewed over 30,000 Canadian, US, South African, Indian, Singaporean and Maylasian websites.

Kenneth is selling limited editions of works from his beautiful Scanned Flowers Series (http://www.suicidepreventionhelp.com/web.html) to raise funds that will enable him to purchase Web directory software, and to devote his time to creating this needed Internet resource.

In this series of outstanding photos, he took freshly-picked flowers from his garden and scanned them using a flatbed scanner. He then digitally painted the images, producing a remarkable body of work composed of over 100 flowers.

Scanned flowers from this series are sold in limited editions of 10, and come with a certificate of authenticity. Signed works, with accompanying certificates, are printed on professional acid free paper, and are sent everywhere throughout the world.

Read an article recently published in The Montreal Gazette (http://www.kennethhemmerick.com/texts/hemmerick_gazette_article.pdf) about his Suicide Prevention Help site and experience with suicide and suicide prevention.