County sees extreme decline in suicides in ’16

Suicide totals for Garland County decreased by about 50 percent in 2016 after two years of unusually high rates.

A total of 39 suicide deaths occurred in Garland County in 2015. Preliminary data from the office of Garland County Coroner Stuart Smedley shows a 50-percent decrease from 2015 to 2016. The percentage could slightly increase or decrease due to cases yet to be finalized.

“Normally, when you are doing prevention efforts, that is an unheard of amount of reduction,” said Susie Reece, who chairs the Garland County Suicide Prevention Coalition. “They tell you when you write for a grant to aim for a 5-percent reduction in a year or related time frame.”

The coalition was founded in August 2014. Reece said coalition members spent the first 16 months laying the organization’s foundation, growing awareness and establishing communication with other community groups.

The group helped sponsor an increasing number of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training sessions in 2016 and hosted the “Cracked, Not Broken” Suicide Prevention Conference with the United Way of the Ouachitas and the Arkansas Department of Health in March at the Frederick M. Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences on the National Park College campus.

“Really, in 2016, after our conference,

we had a major push for education on mental health, substance abuse prevention and suicide prevention in general,” Reece said. “We have done a lot on trainings and educating the population, not just the general public, but also those in service fields, because they may not understand this information either. It’s just a matter of being exposed to it.”

The 2015 total increased from 37 in 2014 when Garland County ranked third in the state at 41.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. The most recently reported annual age-adjusted national suicide rate is 13.26 per 100,000 individuals, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Arkansas currently ranks 16th-most nationally with a rate of 17.25.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported suicide as the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States in 2014 when 42,773 Americans died by suicide. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 1034 and fourth-most for ages 35-54.

Almost 330 deaths by suicide occurred in Garland County from 2004-15. The local rate averaged between 18.4 in 2006 to 29.3 in 2009 before the uptick in 201415. The 23 suicide deaths in 2013 was the least in Garland County since 2007.

Reece said the 2016 data does not fully indicate how influential prevention efforts were to the decrease in 2016. She said the coalition will further analyze the data to attempt to learn how much impact events had throughout the year.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs hired Reece as a violence prevention specialist in 2016 after the hospital was awarded a $71,510 Violence Prevention Grant from the national Catholic Health Initiatives system. The hospital pledged $6,000 in salary for the position focused on suicide prevention.

The grant included $50,510 for miscellaneous uses and must be allotted by June 30. Reece said the hospital has been able to accomplish more with the available funding than originally planned.

Patrick McCruden, senior vice president and chief mission officer for CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, previously said the hospital planned to apply for more grant funding for the effort in the future. The hospital can apply for an increased amount after the first year.

The Violence Prevention Grant and local groups have also aimed to address self-harm and suicide attempts. An estimated 12 people harm themselves for every reported death by suicide.

The southwest trauma region of Arkansas, which includes Garland County, experienced the second-highest suicide and self-inflicted injury hospitalization rates in the state in 2013, according to data from the Arkansas Department of Health.

Almost 125 people died by suicide in Garland County from 2009-13, but 557 people were hospitalized with self-inflicted injuries during the same time period. Reece said 1,300 mental health related calls were made to Garland County emergency services in 2015.

Official data on suicides, self-inflicted injuries and emergency response can often take months or years to compile. Reece said the coalition is working to refine its data collection system to obtain the local information sooner.

“It may be something where it’s a month behind depending on their reporting systems, but we won’t have to wait two years to see what has happened,” Reece said. “Hopefully, within the next several months, we will actually be able to have a death review committee, who will be able to build psychological profiles on what we are looking at.”

Reece said she is optimistic the mental health court will again become a tool for local treatment. Late District Court Judge David Switzer voiced his frustration in the lack of local efforts to revive the mental health court last summer during one of several town hall meetings hosted by the coalition at the Hot Springs School District’s Jones School Historic Building.

“That was really the first time we saw the community stand up and voice their frustrations and what they saw could help,” Reece said.

Reece said Ouachita Behavioral Health and Wellness, Therapeutic Family Services and CHI are among multiple local organizations ready to work with the court.

No plans are in place to hold a second Cracked conference. Reece said the coalition will explore a possible veterans mental health conference in September.

“Our goal is to have target-specific events and target-specific trainings,” Reece said. “We know that for each demographic we are looking at, they all have different needs. They all have different issues they are facing. We want to be as comprehensive as possible.”

The coalition will host its first meeting of 2017 today at 2 p.m. in the Garland County Library to discuss the 2016 annual report findings and determine whether it should become a 501(c)3 organization. The group has also opened an online community asset assessment survey to coordinate, highlight and support community programs, services, groups and organizations.

Responses will be used in a comprehensive community directory to be made available in several formats to the public. Email Reece at reecesusie@ymail.com for a link to the survey.

Trained counselors are available 24 hours every day with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line. Both services are free and confidential.

Call 800-273-8255 for the Lifeline. Text “START” to 741-741 for the Text Line.