Month: September 2026

By Brian Carlson

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    LEHI, Utah (KSL) — A growing Utah group is using love and camaraderie to curb an ongoing battle of high suicide rates among men.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women, something advocates are keenly aware of, and the “i love you, bro” project addresses in a simple way unlike anywhere in the country.

On a Wednesday night, inside a business park at 3130 W. Maple Loop Drive in Lehi, men are reminiscing about their favorite childhood TV shows.

“I really enjoyed ‘The Simpsons’ growing up,” said one man.

“Educational … ‘Magic School Bus,’ ‘School House Rock’,” said another.

It was an icebreaker conversation for a small circular group offering each other support to prevent suicides.

“We create space for men to be vulnerable, for men to connect,” said Joe Tuia’ana, founder of the “i love you, bro” project.

It’s one of 15 groups meeting each week across the state with the “i love you, bro” project, the only group in the country providing evidence-based workshops and activities for men’s health and suicide prevention.

The nonprofit started in 2022 by Tuia’ana when he found a man standing on a freeway overpass, and convinced him to come down with open arms, and four simple words.

“I just told him, ‘I love you, bro’ over, over and over again,” said Tuia’ana.

But once safe, Tuia’ana discovered there was nowhere for him to go.

“So I did some research with this bro on what resources were available, and there wasn’t any,” said Tuia’ana.

So Tuia’ana made his own, where men can help each other.

“And for men. That’s what we need. We need purpose. We need fulfillment. We need something to drive us,” said Tuia’ana.

The need is real, accentuating the lack of resources; about 80% of suicides are men.

“Men have a really hard time engaging in mental health care in general,” said Dr. Eric Monson, medical director of the University of Utah’s Zero Suicide Program.

Monson said there are a number of factors, including how men think they would be looked at, different cultural expectations for men vs. women, greater potential for substance abuse, and more.

“So all of this leads to possibly a lack of awareness that they possibly need support and a general resistance to seeking that kind of support when they really need it,” said Monson.

The men here at “i love you, bro” say the group offers them relief.

“Coming to group has allowed me … just seeing other men be vulnerable, has allowed me space to be vulnerable,” said Eric Golub, “i love you, bro” project participant.

“It’s helped me realize that I’m not the only one dealing with this at 42 years old, trying to find out who I am still,” said Matt Worthington, “i love you, bro” project participant.

The organization proves most helpful when members have a mental health emergency.

“Eighty percent of them report that they’ll reach out to another bro if they’re in a crisis. So we know what we’re doing is working,” said Tuia’ana.

It’s reshaping suicide prevention, one conversation, one group at a time, participants said.

If you’d like to attend one of these groups. They’re free, and they meet each week at various locations from Logan to Spanish Fork, with the goal to expand even more. To see times and locations, click on this link to the “i love you, bro project.”

You also have immediate help during a crisis 24/7. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, just call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Emily Ashcraft

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    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSL) — Lori Meers was visibly emotional on Tuesday as a judge called her actions toward her 77-year-old mother “torture.”

“I can’t imagine what that must have felt like,” 3rd District Judge Coral Sanchez said, noting disturbing photos and videos depicting where the woman’s mother spent her last months.

The judge told Meers that her mother, referred to by the initials W.P. in court documents, was in what was likely the most vulnerable time of her life and was counting on her daughter for care. Instead, the woman was repeatedly left uncomfortable in her own waste.

Sanchez said a video from a neighbor’s camera shown at the trial where Meers was verbally abusing her mother who looked “helpless, whimpering, confused,” is something that will never leave her mind.

“That gave me a glimpse of of what life for your mother was during that period of time,” Sanchez said.

The judge ordered Meers, 54, to serve two consecutive prison terms of one to 15 years for manslaughter and intentional aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, second-degree felonies. Meers will spend between two and 30 years behind bars.

A jury found her guilty of both charges on July 10, finding after about three and a half hours of deliberating that Meers caused her mother’s death by not adequately caring for her.

The judge cited evidence from the trial that there was no reason that Meers needed to be keeping her in their home and that W.P. had other resources available if Meers had reached out for help.

“What I find disturbing is that this was not a stranger to you – this was your own mother,” Sanchez said before ordering the sentences to run consecutively.

On March 10, 2025, police responded to Intermountain Medical Center, where Meers’ mother was admitted. The woman had lived with Meers while she had dementia. The mother’s twin sister had visited the home earlier that day and called 911, handing the phone to Meers.

W.P. died on March 29, 2025, and prosecutors reported her death was from “septic shock due to acute pancreatitis.” Meers was charged on Sept. 9, 2025.

Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Ben Bartholomew said W.P.’s family attended the sentencing, but had said everything they wished to say in a letter submitted to the judge before the sentencing.

He said Meers knew her mother’s condition was deteriorating for a long time, but continued to allow her to live in a “home that was beyond repair, caked in feces and urine.” He said when help arrived, the home was barely at 60 degrees and that Meers’ mother had many ulcers and open wounds.

Bartholomew encouraged the judge to issue consecutive sentences, saying it was a “deeply troubling” situation.

The prosecutor also said she had been written up for inciting a riot at the jail. Meers’ attorney, Matthew Strickland, claimed that calling it a riot was an “exaggeration.” He said she had sought help for a woman who was engaging in self harm, and that the woman had thrown a bowl at her but she did not fight back.

Strickland argued for the sentences to be run at the same time, saying a concurrent sentence would give her enough time to address her mental health needs and would be an “appropriate punishment that wouldn’t be overly punitive.”

Strickland said his client admits that her choices were ignorant and neglectful. He said she is not a threat to the community.

“I think she’s extremely remorseful for what happened to her mother. She loved her mother and she refers to her mother as her best friend,” the attorney said.

Meers thanked the judge for listening to her case, but didn’t make any comments in the hearing about her actions.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced the sentence in a press release and thanked all those involved for actions that brought justice in the case.

“We appreciate the judge seeing the gravity of the situation created by the defendant in her neglect of her own mother,” Gill’s statement read. “The judge did not mince words when she handed down the sentence saying the defendant’s treatment of her mother amounted to torture. This was not a case of mistakes by an overwhelmed caretaker, this was outright neglect.”

Gill said that in Utah, anyone who believes a vulnerable adult is being abused, neglected or exploited must report it to police or Adult Protective Services.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.