Contact: Dave Schroeder / Dave.Schroeder@lifeway.com

B&H Book Addresses Crucial Issues of Mental Health, Suicide Born of Father’s Heartache

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Frank Page, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, offers hope and help from a personal perspective to others whose loved ones have taken their own life in Melissa: A Father’s Lessons from a Daughter’s Suicide.

The book’s June 1 release follows recent national attention given to the topic. USA Today reported, “Baptist leaders (met) in Dallas, Texas, this spring to address mental illness. The meeting was prompted by the Newtown, Conn., shooting and has gained more urgency since the suicide of Matthew Warren, 27-year-old son of California megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren.”

Sharing wrenching statistics on the number of suicides—ninety-one per day in the United States alone—Page candidly says he felt the book might be cathartic after losing his 32-year-old daughter Melissa to suicide in 2009. He later recognized the impact it could have on others.