Suicides

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in our country and actually in the world, and yet it's largely preventable. It has been trending up in terms of our national rate of suicide over the last decade or so. It had trended down prior to that. So we're at a place now where we really want to make a difference; we want to use the methods that we know can work to lower the suicide rate and allow those who are struggling to get the help that they need. Mental health problems play a significant role for suicide risk. In fact, if you had to pick out one of the many risk factors that tend to come together to create suicide, mental health problems could be called actually a necessary but not significant factor in place. In greater than 90 percent of cases of suicide, as shown in the research, there is a diagnosable mental health condition at play, whether or not it was diagnosed or treated. Now, many other factors then lay on top of that to rise up to create an imminent risk for that sense of desperation, hopelessness but then also the thought and the planning and the ability to act on those suicidal impulses.