In the two years since Nevada’s Office of Suicide Prevention was funded in 2005, the state has gone from leading the nation in suicides to No. 2 (behind Alaska). Suicide-prevention officials say that’s no cause for celebration. They’re preparing for an eventual onslaught. Says Debbie Gant-Reed, crisis-line coordinator for the Crisis Call Service: “When the troops start coming home in large numbers, I expect to be deluged. I don’t think we’ve touched the tip of the iceberg.”
2003: Year the legislature approved creation of the state Office of Suicide Prevention.
2005: Year office received its first infusion of funds.
$344,829: Initial allocation awarded from the 2005 legislature.
$433,550: Amount approved by then-Gov. Kenny Guinn in the same year to bolster security in the Attorney General’s office.
1st: Nevada’s rank in suicides in 2005.
2nd: Nevada’s rank in suicides in 2006.
432: Suicides statewide last year.
23,000: Calls to the state’s suicide-prevention hotline in 2006.
21,789: Youth who seriously considered suicide in 2005.
11,774: Youth who attempted suicide one or more times in 2005.
48 per 100,000: Suicide rate among Nevada’s elderly (60 and older)—highest in the
nation.
44: Crisis Call Service hotline callers last year who said they were veterans of foreign wars, from Vietnam to Iraq.
Dozens: Calls from soldiers despondent over having to return to combat.
2: Anecdotal stories that state suicide-prevention coordinator Misty Vaughn Allen has heard about Iraq War veterans committing suicide. “We don’t have a real handle on the true numbers.”
Unknown: Number of nonfatal suicide attempts, attempts that weren’t reported and people who’ve contemplated taking their lives.
(Statistics courtesy of Crisis Call Service.) –Damon Hodge