Myths and facts about suicide exposed at town hall meeting

True or false? Myth or fact?

• Those who talk about suicide will not do it.

• No one can stop a suicide — it’s inevitable.

• It’s best to encourage a grieving person to look on the bright side, put it behind them and just get over it.

• The holidays are a time when people who are grieving can easily forget about their grief.

As people who attended a Dec. 2 town hall meeting on suicide prevention at Grouse Mountain Lodge learned, all four statements are false and a myth.

About 80 people attended the meeting, which was organized by North Valley Hospital and Whitefish school superintendent Jerry House. A panel of eight counselors, health professionals and clergy presented information on suicide prevention and intervention and handling grief.

Montana ranks second in the U.S. in suicide rates, and Flathead County is ranked in the top 100 counties, House reported. But the good news is there are 129 counselors ready to help in the Flathead — and that doesn’t include clergy, he said.

North Valley Hospital dealt with 46 suicide attempts last year and 24 people who contemplated committing suicide, said Steven Zwisler.

“That works out to about one a week,” he noted.

The first step in preventing suicide is to learn about it, and Joan Schmidt, from the Flathead Suicide Prevention Coalition provided a wealth of information on the subject in a powerful PowerPoint presentation.

The highest rates of suicide in the U.S. are found in the “shadow of the Rockies” — with Alaska ranked No. 1 and Montana No. 2. For the six Lower 48 states in the region, the number of suicide deaths tracks closely to the number of traffic deaths for 1999-2007.

From 2000 through 2007, the suicide rate in 45 percent of Montana counties was double the national average, and the rate in Flathead County nearly tripled last year.

More teenagers and young adults die by suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. In Montana, suicide is the leading cause of death for youths from 10 to 24 years old, and the No. 1 cause of preventable death among Montana children for ages 10-14, Schmidt said.

A youth-risk behavior survey in 2009 found that about a quarter of Montana youths in grades 9-12 felt sad or homeless for two weeks or more in a row, and about 15 percent said they had seriously considered suicide over the past 12 months.

Males are four times more likely to complete suicide than females, Schmidt said, but females attempt suicide three times more often than males. Firearm use is the most common suicide method, accounting for 49 percent of youths and 66 percent of adults.

There is no single reason for attempting suicide, Schmidt said. Attempts usually result from a combination of risk factors, but up to 90 percent of those who complete suicide suffer from a brain disorder or substance abuse disorder or both, Schmidt said.

Depression and suicide often go hand-in-hand, and depression is a brain disorder that needs to be treated. Early recognition and treatment of depression and other psychiatric illnesses may prevent suicide, Schmidt said.

“People who feel they are a burden to others are at high risk,” she said. “And people who feel they do not belong or fit in are at high risk.”

Other risk factors include family history of suicide, unrealistic parental expectations, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, alcohol or drug use, impulsive or aggressive tendencies, social isolation, fear of humiliation, confusion or conflict about sexual identity — and access to lethal means.

Dr. Michael Newman, from Pathways Treatment Center, said people need to take that last point more seriously, and they need to act more quickly and decisively.

“I’ve attended lots of these town meetings, and we have failed miserably,” he said. “What can we do better?”

Diminishing access to the tools of suicide is one of two successful ways to prevent suicide, Newman said. People might not want to take away someone’s gun, but it might keep that person a live. Many teenagers have easy access to their parents’ prescription drugs and can get alcohol without too much trouble.

“It only takes 20 minutes between the time someone decides to commit suicide and the act itself,” Newman said.

Reluctance by people to seek help for someone who may be suicidal could prove lethal.

“Don’t worry if they’ll be angry at you later for what you do — at least they’ll still be alive,” Newman said.

Whitefish Middle School principal Kerry Drown and school district psychologist Robin Bissell described steps taken by a new Quick Response Team both in preventing suicides and in addressing the grief that follows.

The school district was tested on two occasions last year when a high school student and a spouse of a school employee committed suicide. Students’ text messages gets the story out quickly, Drown pointed out, and school officials need to be prepared to move quickly, too.

Bissell explained that a number of proactive steps have been taken, including a pilot program at the high school called the Student Assistance Program. The goal is early intervention by identifying students with risky behavior and providing education and support groups.

Seventy high school students have already “self-referred” to the program, she said, and eight support groups have been established. The successful program will continue into the second semester and eventually be tried in the middle school.