Saskatchewan suicide numbers rising despite more mental health awareness
‘My name is Carla Cullen and I have taken my life. Please phone the police’
REGINA – A meticulous planner in life, Carla Cullen left little to chance when she chose to die.
She wrote detailed notes to each of her family members, repainted her home’s interior so her family could sell it faster after she was gone, and cleaned out many of her belongings.
The 51-year-old even researched her preferred method of suicide.
“Everything was absolutely perfectly planned,” said sister Linda Yablonski. “She was very methodical.”
Then on July 28, 2018, the planning stopped.
Cullen drove her van to a nearby shopping centre and parked in the lot.
She put a note on the front window of her vehicle: “My name is Carla Cullen and I have taken my life. Please phone the police.’”
By the time anyone saw it, Cullen was dead in the back of the van. Her note included their brother’s phone number, so police immediately had a family contact.
“This is Carla, seeing it through to the nth degree, every single little fine detail and making sure everything is in order,” said Yablonski. “That’s how the birthday parties ran — and that’s how her death was.”
Just two years apart in age, Cullen and Yablonski grew up not only as sisters, but as inseparable best friends. They had three other siblings, but since they were all six to 10 years older, Yablonski often felt like it was just the two of them.
“Carla and I did everything together,” she said, describing her sister as “the queen of friendly and happy.”
In more recent years, Cullen ran a daycare in her Regina home for a group of girls that adored her — a job Cullen loved to use as a creative outlet. One summer she built a cardboard box time machine and spent every weekend turning her basement into a different time period to help the girls learn about history.
Beginning as a teenager and into adulthood, Yablonski struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts. Cullen was always there to pull her out of the darkness.
“I struggled with depression for 20 years and whenever I felt like I was at the end of my rope, I would phone Carla. Most people in my life had no clue how depressed I was, and I always felt very heard and seen and loved by her no matter what crappy stuff was going around in my head,” said Yablonski.
“Many times in my life, even as a teenager, I would lay in bed and I’d think, I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m just going to end this. No one would cry at my funeral anyway.” But she knew her sister would cry.
“Carla would miss me if I wasn’t here, and so Carla saved my life so many times.”
All that time, Yablonski never guessed Cullen was also struggling with depression. “It was the year before (she died) that she told me that she’s never felt like she belonged here … She could never figure out her purpose in life,” said Yablonski.
“I felt so betrayed, because I couldn’t save her.”
Eighteen months have passed since her sister’s death, but Yablonski still wonders why Cullen didn’t tell anyone she was struggling, and why she made her ultimate decision. By keeping Cullen’s memory alive and in talking with friends and family, Yablonski is healing.
Still, there’s an enduring, deep sadness for a loss she never planned.
Saskatchewan had the highest suicide rate of any province last year.
Cullen was one of 224 people — 170 males and 54 females — who died by suicide in Saskatchewan in 2018, according to statistics from the Saskatchewan Coroners Service. That’s 19.3 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people, nearly double the 2018 national per capita average of 10.3.
Of those 224 people who took their own lives, 24 were under the age of 19, 118 were between 20 and 49 years old, and 82 were more than 50 years old.
The numbers reflect only a part of the issue, since there’s also an estimated 20 attempts for every completed suicide, according to Statistics Canada.
It notes suicide is usually the result of multiple factors combined — like mental illness, family issues, financial difficulty or a lack of social support. While mental illness is not always a factor, it contributes to an estimated 90 per cent of suicides.
So with more awareness around such issues than ever before, why is Saskatchewan losing more and more people to suicide?
Jack Hicks, an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine, has researched suicide prevention since 2003.
Growing mental health awareness and more open dialogue is a welcome change, but he said people often go wrong in thinking that raising awareness of mental health automatically addresses the issue of suicide.
“Suicide prevention is not the same thing as mental health promotion,” said Hicks, although noting the two are related.
“We saw it perfectly with the Saskatchewan government, that when somebody talks about suicide prevention, they say, ‘Oh, but last year we spent X million dollars on mental health.’ They just don’t get it.”
He believes mixing mental health awareness and suicide prevention has caused Saskatchewan to drag its feet.
If a cohesive, provincial strategy was in place, Hicks believes the rate could at least be brought in line with the national average.
“You’re never going to get rid of suicide behaviour,” he said. “But what Saskatchewan doesn’t have is a multi-faceted suicide prevention strategy.”
He believes a good strategy would include more research into the geographical areas and groups of people most impacted, to better target resources to the highest-risk communities.
Suicide intervention training should also be more widespread, and he recommends implementing a follow-up program for people who have checked into the hospital because of suicidal thoughts or attempts.
A lack of suicide prevention training also tops Donna Bowyer’s list of why Saskatchewan’s numbers are still climbing. Provincial director of education and training for the Canadian Mental Health Association, she’d particularly like to see mandatory training for emergency room staff, who are often the first point of contact.
“You wouldn’t put somebody in an emergency room to look after somebody having a heart attack if they don’t have training to know what to do with it,” she said. “Yet we do that with suicide.
“Suicide is a life and death situation just as much as a heart attack.”
But it’s not just medical professionals who can make a difference for someone struggling with suicidal thoughts.
Bowyer said getting rid of the stigma and talking about suicide openly — as Yablonski does with her sister’s death — encourages people to speak up about how they’re feeling.
“If you talk about it,” said Bowyer, “… you’re giving them permission to talk to you about it, which opens up a door for them to be able to let you know what’s going on.”