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State Tries To Tackle Suicide Rate

Stephen Butler via Flickr (CC-BY)

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the US, and Colorado has some of the highest rates in the nation.

"Much of that is a function of where are located, geographically.  The states in the Rocky Mountain West typically have a highest rates of suicide in the US, and Colorado of course falls into that," says Jarrod Hindman.  He manages the violence and suicide prevention  section of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. 

He says no one really knows why the west has higher suicide rate.

"There's some theories as to why that may be.  In the western US we have pretty vast rural geography, so that includes social and geographic isolation.  It may also mean that people don't have access to appropriate mental health services," says Jarrod. 

"There's also this theory in the Western US that we really embrace that notion of rugged individualism.  The notion is 'pick yourself up by your bootstraps', and the reality is that if you have a brain disorder, you can't bootstrap your way out of it."

Unfortunately, the Western Slope stands out even in Colorado. 

"It depends on the year and where you're looking, but I would say that consistently, Mesa county has one of the highest suicide rates in the state," he says. 

More than a thousand people in Colorado ended their own life in 2012 alone.  Because of this, a new commission was created by legislators. 

"The purpose of the commission is to expand both public and private partnerships for suicide prevention in Colorado," he says. "Their charge will be to help set some statewide priorities for suicide prevention."

Those priorities they will be looking into are things like – how emergency rooms handle suicide attempts and threats.  Their very first meeting will be at the end of this week.

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