Access to treatment key to suicide prevention efforts

– Editorial –

Members of the Courier Sentinel editorial board include publisher Carol O’Leary, general manager Kris O’Leary and Star News editor Brian Wilson.

The numbers are staggering. In 2020, 45,979 Americans died by suicide, out of 1.2 million attempts. This comes to about 3,287 Americans attempting suicide each day, it works out to about 137 per hour. In the time it takes to read this editorial, seven people will have tried to end their own life.

Suicide touches everyone, regardless of age, background or economic status.

For some survivors and allies, suicide was the immediate and devastating loss of a child, parent or sibling. Others are impacted more distantly, through a shared communal grief in a life ended far before their time.

With every tragedy, there are efforts to increase awareness and open a greater dialogue about the impact of suicide in the community. The effort of this dialogue is to tear down the old stigmas and address the silent epidemic of suicides sweeping across the country.

Raising awareness and starting those hard conversations is always needed. Sharing the warning signs to watch for and promoting the 988 national helpline number, are essential in diverting potential suicide victims from taking their own lives.

Awareness and prevention efforts, and crisis helpline, can only go so far.

These crisis interventions are like pulling a wandering child out from in front of a speeding truck. They save lives and avert heart-rending tragedies in that moment. But, it relies on someone alert and being there to prevent the next tragedy, and the one after that.

A lifeline is only as good as what it is connected to. While there has been a growing and successful effort in raising awareness, and, if sought or caught, access to immediate crisis intervention, there is a woeful lack of resources for the needed follow-up care or for the preventative mental healthcare that would have prevented the crisis from occurring in the first place.

When people fall and break their arms, or get sick with the latest flu bug going around, people understand that. They can get the treatment needed to ease symptoms and aid in a swift recovery.

When it comes to depression and other mental illness, the outward signs are less visible and more easily hidden. People who are unaffected by mental illness often simply do not understand the daily struggles faced, not seeing the sadness behind the forced smile, or the danger signs in the thrill seeking and risk taking.

Even if they do see the signs and a diagnosis is made, good luck in getting the specialist help needed. The national average for wait time to get treatment, is five to six weeks. In rural areas where providers are few and far between, the wait time can often be measured in months.

Even then, care is rationed by insurance-company bean-counters, who want a quick fix, with the fewest number of billable hours possible. While treatments exist, getting the right one and fine tuning it to meet the needs of individual patients, takes time and resources.

These resources are lacking, because of the actions of penny-pinching politicians, who see human services agencies as a place to make budget balancing cuts, rather than as a needed investment. They are lacking, because all of us who have been impacted by suicide and mental health, have not demanded action and demanded the resources be put where they are most needed.

And most tragically, the resources are lacking at times, because there simply aren’t enough qualified mental health providers to meet the growing demand.

The goal of suicide prevention and awareness events are noble, and organizers and attendees should be celebrated for raising their voices, and taking a stand.

It is time for the politicians and private providers, who gatekeep access to mental health services, to pay attention and take action, to ensure that people are able to get the services they need, before they have to be pulled from the ledge.