Las Animas County suicide rate above state average

Las Animas County’s suicide rate is above that of the state average, according to the most recent data compiled by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP).

Suicide levels have increased in the state as a whole. The most recent compilation of statistics, covering Fiscal Year 2009-2010, has the state’s average rate at 18.4 suicides per 100,000 citizens, the highest level since 1988 and the highest total number (940) of Coloradoans to die from suicide in the state’s history. Las Animas County’s suicide rate for that same time period was 39 per 100,000 citizens.

Among the few other southeastern region counties for which the OSP retained suicide rate records, those counties tended to have lower suicide rates. Otero County’s suicide rate for the same time period was 17.2, and Pueblo County’s rate was 22.3. Prowers and Fremont counties’ rates were closer to that of Las Animas County, at respective levels of 35.1 and 35.4.

Bent County, however, had a suicide rate of 58.5. That was the highest rate in the state, trailed by Saguache County’s second-place suicide rate of 41.3 per 100,000 citizens. Also ahead of Las Animas County’s suicide rate, according to the most recently available data, were Conejos County (44.5) and Clear Creek County with a rating of 42.1.

In the most recent data, suicide tallied as the seventh leading cause of death among Coloradoans. “Coloradans ages 85 and older demonstrated the highest suicide rate in Colorado, with a rate of 46.9 deaths (per) 100,000 in 2009,” the OSP’s report stated. “Among youth and young adults ages 10 to 34, suicide constituted the second leading cause of death.”

Adding, “In 2007, the most recent year of data available nationally, Colorado had the sixth highest suicide rate in the United States.”

The American Association of Suicidology attributes the currently high suicide levels to “economic strain and personal financial crises,” as well as other long-term stressors which have been know to cause “significant impact on those vulnerable to suicide, where typical coping mechanisms are compromised by the effects of mental disorder, substance use, acute psychiatric symptoms, and a host of other risk factors associated with suicide.”

The OSP noted in its Fiscal Year 2009-2010 report that, “Given that there is a clear and direct relationship between rates of unemployment and suicide as reported by the American Association of Suicidology, current economic conditions coupled with an unemployment rate in Colorado (8 percent in 2010, though projected to grow to 8.4 percent in 2011) may have contributed to recent increases in the number of suicide deaths.”

As reported by the Colorado Legislative Council Staff Economic Section’s December 2010 economic forecast, the state’s southern mountain region — which includes the counties of Las Animas, Pueblo, Huerfano, Fremont and Custer — have suffered, “the highest unemployment rate among all regions of the state throughout much of the recession.”

As compared to the state average of 8 percent in 2010, the southern mountain region had an average unemployment rate in 2010 of 10.7 percent.

Addressing the House Committee on Health and Environment last week, OSP Program Director Jarrod Hindman said that, “Every year in Colorado, there are far more suicides than homicides…there are far more suicides than motor vehicle deaths.”

Hindman also noted that, in Colorado, the rate of successful suicide attempts among adolescents was 1 in 234, while among seniors the rate was 1:2. Females were said to attempt suicide more frequently than males — with female Latinos the demographic with the highest self-reported attempt numbers — though males were said to utilize more ultimately lethal methods, such as firearms versus the overdose attempts statistically favored by females. “It’s a major public health issue,” he said.

Hindman suggested that the state’s high suicide levels could be attributed to what he called the “cowboy mentality,” which entails mental health issues being perceived as a “private” rather than social issue, lessening the possibility of the afflicted to seek outside help for their problems. “It’s a ‘pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps’ (mentality),” he said.

Hindman also cited the high rates of immigration into Colorado from other states, which causes people to leave behind crucial social support networks. Colorado’s population growth rate from the 2000 census to 2010 was ranked ninth among other U.S. states and territories. Preliminary data released in late December by the U.S. Census Bureau showed Colorado’s population to have grown 16.9 percent from the April 2000 census count of 4,301,261. At the end of last year, Las Animas County had an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent.

The OSP offers grants for the establishment and operation of suicide awareness and prevention programs at the local level throughout the state.“We have probably about 12 or 13 grantees currently that we give money to, to do work at the local level,” Hindman told The Times Independent. “It’s very small dollars, and most them (grantees) are doing ‘gatekeeper’ trainings, so they’re going out and teaching people in their communities how to recognize people who are suicidal and how to intervene with them appropriately.”

Hindman also offered at last week’s committee hearing to host the OSP’s suicide prevention symposium “anywhere,” suggesting that any agency or organization interested in such should contact the OSP office. The office has a telephone number of (303) 692-2397 and an e-mail address of cdphe.psdrequests@state.co.us.

Federal grants are also available for the establishment and maintenance of suicide awareness and prevention programs. Trinidad State Junior College is the recipient of a federal grant from the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Campus Suicide Prevention Program. Some TSJC staff are trained in Applied Suicide Intervention Skill Training, and provide regular training to other faculty and staff to act as “gatekeepers.” “Training assists ‘gatekeepers’ in identifying and reporting students in distress to the appropriate supervisor, administrative liaison, or official for intervention and referral,” TSJC’s Crisis Response Plan states.

Hindman acknowledged the need for more widespread availability of mental health services in Colorado to assist in suicide prevention. “In an ideal world, if funding weren’t an option, I would have way more grants so we could have grantees (establishing suicide prevention programs) throughout the state, either by region or county,” Hindman said. “I think it’s really important that we try to improve our mental health services because unfortunately a lot of times, even if we intervene with somebody (to prevent suicide), there’s no where to take them if they don’t have insurance or if they’re underinsured, they’re out of luck.”

Hindman stressed education and awareness of suicide as a public health issue as a need in the state “So many people still think of suicide as a private issue and something that they should not get involved in, and we need to make it more of a public health issue,” he said. “If people recognize it as something that we can actually prevent, then people can get involved in and support (efforts to prevent it), just like we can support breast cancer (awareness), heart disease (prevention), non-smoking and things like that.”

In addition to the county’s higher suicide levels, the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute released early last year its County Health Rankings, with Las Animas County ranked 54th out of 56 Colorado counties for overall health outcomes. The study considered a number of health indicators, including such variables as rates of suicides and other means of “premature” death — those occurring before the age of 75 — low birth rates and days per month of poor mental or physical health.

Local agencies and individuals interested in accessing suicide awareness and prevention resources in the state can contact the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado through their website at www.suicidepreventioncolorado.org. Pueblo Suicide Prevention Center maintains a regional suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK).

Section: General, Mental Illness

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