Idaho Suicide coalition working on changes to help lower suicide rates

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death in Idaho among those who are ages 10 to 44. In fact, there were 361 suicides in Idaho in 2015. That’s almost one suicide per day. In 2015, Idaho moved from ninth in the nation to fifth-highest for suicides per capita.

Those stats are according to the Idaho Suicide Prevention Coalition, who is in Boise this week hoping to encourage some policy changes.

Wednesday was Suicide Advocacy Prevention Day at the Capitol and so the coalition presented its ideas on how to improve the growing rates.

One key change the coalition feels would be beneficial is reporting suicides quicker. It is working with county coroners across the state to have suicides reported within 48 hours.

It said this would be beneficial because one of its biggest concerns is the young age of suicides.

“The challenge that we face overall is the high rate of suicide in middle school and high school students,” said Nate Fisher, executive director of the ISPC.

So by reporting those suicides quicker, agencies can send in trauma response teams to the schools to help students and others cope with the loss.

“The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Welfare needs that information on suicide as quickly as possible to respond to the school,” Fisher said. “What happens to a school or what happens to a community “post-vention,” after a suicide? Trauma, disbelief, alienation, depression….and what we’ve seen in behavioral health systems is when one student dies by suicide, others are very susceptible.”

So by getting those response teams into school, the hope is to prevent more suicides and the encouragement of more. The teams want to help students cope so they don’t follow the same path as the student who died by suicide.

“Our ultimate goal is not to have any student even have the idea of suicide,” Fisher said. “We want to prevent that idea in the first place.”

The coalition hopes to have such teams in at least half of the state’s schools by 2021.

Fisher said the departments don’t even need a name when reporting suicides, just a school or location.

He said aside from the schools and younger victims, it can apply to others as well. By reporting those numbers, behavior experts can look at what areas are “high-risk” for suicides and what areas need to have more resources focused on to lower the data.

The change in reporting suicides is not part of the legislature, it’s simply being discussed as part of the group’s meeting with state officials on how they are working to make changes. The reporting is on a voluntary basis with the coroners, it is not a mandatory requirement. But Fisher said the coroners have been supportive of the idea and the response has been great.

If you or someone you know is in danger of committing suicide, call the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline at 208-398-4357.