Tuesday is World Suicide Prevention Day [AUDIO]

Mental health advocates across New Jersey will mark World Suicide Prevention Day Tuesday.

"The theme is overcoming stigma, so it's so essential that we talk about mental illness and behavioral health care resources," said Cherie Castellano, program director of the Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care Center.

She said people contemplating suicide have a sense of isolation and a loss of hope, so the New Jersey Hopeline focuses on allowing people "to not feel alone, and recognize that treatment is out there, it's viable and it's accessable."

Castellano added "treatment is very effective and it's very available, but it's about having the person who's in that crisis, who's suffering, to believe that there is an opportunity for hope and that there is someone who cares."

The New Jersey Hopeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The number is 855-654-6735.

To mark the occasion, a candle lighting ceremony will be held Tuesday from 2 to 4pm at the Rutgers Behavioral Health Care Center in Piscataway.