The death rates for eight of the 10 leading causes of death have decreased significantly, but not for the tenth leading cause — suicide. The national suicide rate has increased to 12.6 suicide deaths per 100,000 and for ages 18 to 35 — the prime of one’s life — only unintentional injuries account for more deaths.
Someone in this country dies by suicide every 12.9 minutes. And one of those deaths was a beautiful 16-year-old girl I knew and loved. I met her mom when she was a young nurse and I was a young social worker, both newly married, working for a state psychiatric hospital. We moved to the same suburb, became fast friends and had children. We gave our children every opportunity toward a path to success. But there are bumps on the journey and bad things happen. I’ll never forget the call and my friend will never recover from the loss.
I’m adding my voice to a growing chorus determined to make suicide prevention a national priority. I’m honored to serve on the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Executive Committee and I applaud the work of the Alliance’s Research Task Force, co-led by National Institute of Mental Health Director Tom Insel and Jed Foundation Board Chair Phil Satow. Their Prioritized Research Agenda for Suicide Prevention: An Action Plan to Save Lives gives us a suicide prevention roadmap.
If we implement the roadmap with fidelity, we will reduce suicides by 20 percent in the next five years and by 40 percent in the next 10. The numbers aren’t arbitrary. The task force based them on exisitng interventions’ effectiveness and the suicide attempts and deaths prevented. Suicide is not chosen, it happens when pain exceeds one’s resources for coping with pain. We need to know more and we need to use what we know.
[For more of this story, written by Linda Rosenberg, go to http://www.thenationalcouncil....icide-is-not-chosen/]
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