Umatter Suicide Prevention Community Awareness Debby Haskins, MS, LADC, CCS Suicide Prevention Specialist debby@healthandlearning.org Nicole Miller, MSW Mental Health Program Specialist nicole@healthandlearning.org

National & State Data

The Big Picture: The Context of Suicide in the US   Ideation 9.3 million past year prevalence in US Highest in ages 18-24 (7.4%) Deaths > 44,000/yr   Attempts 1.3 million attempts in past year Highest in ages 18-25 (2.5%) Non-Suicidal Self Injury  7% - 25% prevalence during adolescence and young adulthood All ages: ~500,000 treated in EDs annually

Suicide Attempts- National Data 25:1 attempts to deaths 100-200 : 1 attempts to deaths in young people 4 : 1 attempts to deaths in elderly Poisoning was most common means used in an attempt In 2014 Suicide Attempts VT data: 1509 hospitalizations and ED visits Unknown number of attempts not seen in hospitals Rates of hospital visits for suicide attempt increased form 202 in 2005 to 258 in 2014. In 2013-2014, most common age groups seen were 25-44, followed by 15-24 and 45-64 years Source: http://www.healthvermont.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016/12/data_brief_suicide_morbidity.pdf

Suicide Trends in Vermont and the US

Population Correlates of High Vermont Suicide Rates Consistently Ranked as 1st or 2nd healthiest US state, BUT… High rates of binge drinking – 17% in past month for adults High rates of firearm ownership & easy purchase of firearms (Kalesan et al., 2015) Rural population – 2nd most rural in Northeastern US Older population –17.6% aged 65 and over (2nd highest in US) This side summarizes several population-level factors that might relate to why Vermont has high suicide death rates. (Total population: 625,000, 94.8% white) Elderly data from world atlas website: http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-us-states-with-the-oldest-population.html

This presents the 2014 leading cause of death data for Vermont, organized by age groups. There are more deaths by suicides in VT than by car accidents, drowning and homicides combined.

Make point that VT higher at all ages, but especially older people.

In VT, males are consistently about 4x more likely than females to die by suicide.

VERMONT YRBS 2015 DATA (High School Students) 11/18/2018 Felt so sad or hopeless almost every day in the past 2 weeks they stopped doing some usual activities 24% Made a plan for how they would die by suicide 12% Attempted suicide 6%

Source: CDC WISQARS

Lethal Means in Vermont Other includes drowning, MVA, cut/pierce CALM training

SUBSTANCE ABUSE & DEPRESSION People with a recent major depressive episode who also had recent drug/alcohol use were more than 2x as likely to attempt suicide than were people with depression who did not have drug/alcohol use.

Serious Attempt or Death by Suicide THOMAS JOINER’S THEORY: Why People Die By Suicide Those Who Desire Suicide Perceived Burdensomeness Those Who Are Capable of Suicide Thwarted Belongingness Those who are capable of suicide: repeated exposure to pain, habituated to pain. Kurt Cobain as an example. Serious Attempt or Death by Suicide