Reducing suicide deaths takes a community

VTDigger is excited to work with Vermont Care Partners to promote the much needed services of its sixteen respective member agencies which, includes NCSS. They also understand how important it is for our elected officials to know how to support the needs of Vermonters.

This thirteen week series is a collaboration produced by members of the Vermont Care Partners statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use and intellectual and developmental disability support.

Below is the tenth installment of the series from Northwestern Counseling & Support Services (NCSS) focusing on the suicide prevention efforts. Includes statements from NCSS staff members Dr. Steve Broer, Deana Chase, and Lance Metayer. Plus, video clips that include NCSS staff: Tony Stevens and Lance Metayer.

Reducing suicide deaths takes a community

On Nov. 30, 2018, AJ Holzscheiter took his own life. He was just 18 years old.

AJ wasn’t alone. In fact, the following year, which is the most current confirmed data available, 109 Vermonters took their own lives.

Those deaths occurred across all ages and incomes.

According to the Vermont Department of Health the 2019 suicide death rate was 15.3 per 100,000 people, which is down from 2018 which was 18.8 per 100,000. “This is encouraging but just like with the national data, we can’t say yet whether it’s going to turn into a trend. We don’t have the preliminary suicide death data for 2020 in Vermont yet. 2019 was similar to previous years in terms of who died by suicide, with males dying about 4 times more often than females, and most of the people were over age 25.”, noted Tom Delaney, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, UVM Larner College of Medicine. Read more…

Link to article:

https://vtdigger.org/sponsored_content/reducing-suicide-deaths-takes-a-community/