1. Umatter Suicide Prevention Community Awareness
Debby Haskins, MS, LADC
Suicide Prevention Specialist
Nicole Miller, MSW
Mental Health Program Specialist

2. National & State Data

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

4. Suicide Attempts- National Data
25:1 attempts to deaths
: 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 , most common age groups seen were 25-44, followed by and years
Source:

6. Suicide Trends in Vermont and the US

7. 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:

8. 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.

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

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

11. VERMONT YRBS 2015 DATA (High School Students)
9/12/2018
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%

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

13. From National Frontier & Rural Addictions Transfer Technology Center:

14. 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.

16. 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