Suicide awareness and prevention advocates in the Yampa Valley are on high alert this month, which is also National Suicide Prevention Month, following 14 deaths due to suicides so far this year split across Routt and Moffat counties.
Nonprofit organizations such as Reaching Everyone Preventing Suicide based in Steamboat Springs and Open Heart Advocates in Craig want residents to know there is help and support available to anyone in need including 24-hour crisis lines and five free counseling sessions.
"We are really encouraging people to reach out for help for themselves or others before it gets to a point of crisis," said Anna Allsberry, REPS marketing and communicators coordinator.
REPS reports that six of those suicides across the Yampa Valley occurred since Aug. 15, including one in Moffat County during Labor Day weekend.
Suicides so far this year in the Yampa Valley top the number of 10 suicides in all of 2023 split between the two counties, Allsberry said. During 2022, 11 deaths by suicide were tracked by REPS in the Yampa Valley.
REPS offers five free counseling sessions to anyone in need in Routt or Moffat counties, with 65 mental health professionals available so that people can be matched with a counselor for the best fit. The free counseling can start from within 24-72 hours of someone calling REPS for assistance at 970-846-8182.
REPS has served 156 people so far this year with counseling, and 62% of those counseling clients are female, Allsberry said. However, 92% of the deaths by suicide have been men from ages 22 to 82.
"We are definitely experiencing a mental health crisis in our community, especially with firearms and men," Allsberry said.
The National Center of Health Statistics reports that firearm suicides as tracked in 2021 are two times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
"We have a stigma in rural culture that real men don't cry, that for real men the only acceptable feeling is anger," said Jamie Fraipont-Daszkiewicz, executive director at Open Heart Advocates.
Experts advise that friends and family members help restrict the immediacy of any means to suicide for people who may be experiencing suicidal ideation.
"Essentially, if the owner of the gun is suicidal, the more steps they must go through to make the weapon operational, the better," advised Tom Gangel, regional outreach director for Mind Springs Health. "Anything that gives the person contemplating suicide a chance to rethink before acting can possibly avert a suicide, such as having the gun in a safe, the ammunition at a family member's house or other remote location."
"If someone is a gun owner and has a history of suicidal thoughts, it is best to store the weapon in a way that requires them to interact with someone else to make the weapon fully operational," Gangel explained.
Mind Springs Health in Steamboat offers free gun lockers for handguns for people in Moffat or Routt counties to help prevent harm, and those interested can contact Gangel at [email protected]. Free gun locks are available through REPS and the Routt County Sheriff's Office.
Open Heart Advocates provides crisis, trauma and survivor services in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties and can help create a safety plan for individuals. Fraipont-Daszkiewicz said she is noticing an increased feeling of despair for the future in clients, such as expressing no hope to own a home, have a family or retire without going into debt.
"What I'm experiencing now, especially in populations under age 30, is they don't have hope for the future and don't see the possibility of it getting better," said Fraipont-Daszkiewicz, who has worked in suicide awareness for 30 years.
"It's a complex issue (when) you have individuals making a choice to end their lives based on much broader topics and things out of their control," she said. "Social and systemic issues are causing harm such as an economic downturn, lack of housing, all of these things lead to a feeling of hopelessness."
Fraipont-Daszkiewicz advises individuals to focus on the present and human connections to "keep focused on what we have control on right now and what you can do right now that brings you joy."
"We draw on what provided hope in the past and ways to curate that and make more happen for the future," Fraipont-Daszkiewicz said.
Fraipont-Daszkiewicz said friends and family members should be on the lookout for changes in normal behaviors and should take seriously any mentions of suicide. She said it may feel uncomfortable, but it is not harmful to ask a person a question such as, "Are you thinking of going to sleep and not waking up?"
"If you have concern with somebody to ask the suicide question, they probably have other things going on in their life that they may need help with," she said.
"Talking and helping support somebody to not end their life isn't a big thing," Fraipont-Daszkiewicz said. "You are not solving their problems. You are allowing them space to be heard to feel safe and know they don't have to solve their problems today or on their own."