Want To Reduce Suicides? Follow The Data — To Medical Offices, Motels And Even Animal Shelters
On Kimberly Repp’s office wall is a sign in Latin: Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae. This is a place where the dead delight in helping the living.
For medical examiners, it’s a mission. Their job is to investigate deaths and learn from them, for the benefit of us all. Repp, however, isn’t a medical examiner; she’s a Ph.D. microbiologist. And as the epidemiologist for Washington County in Oregon, she was accustomed to studying infectious diseases like flu or norovirus outbreaks among the living.
But in 2012 she was asked by county officials to look at suicide. The request led her into the world of death investigations, and it also appears to have led to something remarkable: In this suburban county of 600,000 just west of Portland, the suicide rate now is going down. It’s remarkable because national suicide rates have risen despite decades-long efforts to reverse the deadly trend.
Northern California’s Humboldt County, where the suicide rate is higher than the statewide average, has begun implementing a system like Repp’s. Officials there have identified several unexpected locations, including public parks and motels, where people have died by suicide. They can now turn those sad facts into action plans.
In addition to place, certain life events precipitate suicidal ideation. Loss of a pet, rates were highest among older white men.
Loss of a pet was linked to evictions when patients can no longer house or care for a pet.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or use the online Lifeline Chat, both available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
California Healthline
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