Suicides rise in Kern County
| Saturday, Mar 13 2010 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Mar 13 2010 12:00 PM
How to help others
It's important to help those who may be thinking of suicide remember what they have to live for, says one local expert.
Asking questions that remind them of what they life for, such as a family member, a friend, a spouse or loved one, a job or even fear of death, can help, said Bill Walker, crisis services administrator for the Kern County Mental Health Department.
Preventing suicide can then be based on supporting a person and the reasons they are alive now, he said.
Rev. Monsignor Craig Harrison said he makes it an immediate priority to get involved in a suicidal person's life. "I affirm that not only do I, but other people and Jesus cares about them," he said.
"They are feeling isolated and alone," Harrison said. "When people are desperate, they need to know someone is there for them."
Dean Haddock, a Bakersfield psychologist, added it's important to give people other long-term solutions to what is a short-term problem. Asking a troubled person what they've done in the past to get through a tough time shows how they've succeeded before, he said.
Another good question, Walker said, is to ask if a person is thinking about suicide. If the person answers yes, then referring them to a hotline, a counselor, or the Kern Mental Health Department is a good immediate next step, he said.
"Asking a person about suicide won't make them do it," Walker said. But engaging a person is one of the best ways to prevent suicide, he said. "We don't want to keep it a secret," he said.
The American Association of Suicidology has a list of warning signs that people might be at risk for suicide.
They include any expression of wanting to hurt or kill themselves, and looking for ways and the means to do it, the association said.
An increase in alcohol or drug abuse could be a sign, especially if it is mixed with a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, loneliness, alienation, feeling trapped, dramatic mood swings, feelings of being a burden to others, and anxiety with either being unable to sleep or sleeping all the time.
Other clues can be uncontrolled anger or acting reckless, the association said.
Walker added it is not uncommon for suicide prone people to put their affairs in order, including uncharacteristically telling people in their lives how much they love them.
People with mental or personality problems are more at risk of committing suicide, even though most people with those problems never try, Walker said.
Medication doesn't cure a situation that could lead to suicide, but it can help with conditions such as depression or bipolar disorders, he said.
Harrison said he advises people to watch what they eat as well as what they read and watch. Chemical imbalances and piling on depression are a bad mix, he said.
Words of encouragement and how good life can be are beneficial, Walker said. "People need to hear that survivors lead pretty good lives," Walker said.
Family and friends of victims also need to hear that people who commit suicide can still go to heaven, Harrison said. A sin requires a person to freely choose a wrongful act, but the Catholic church has come to understand people with mental illness "are not in the right state of mind to choose," Harrison said. "I've never met any suicidal person who was in a right state of mind."
Numbers to call
The Kern County Mental Health 24-hour hotline number is 1-800-991-5272.
In an emergency, call 911.
Information from Kern County Mental Health is available by calling 868-8080 during business hours.
Monsignor Craig Harrison can still hear the gunshot. He was a young priest back then, a few decades ago. A man he didn't know called him and said he wanted to kill himself. Before Harrison could say much, he heard the gunshot.
"From that time on, I've always had a sense of urgency" whenever anyone talks to him about ending his or her life, said Harrison, who estimated he has conducted about 100 funerals for suicide victims.
In the last few years, Harrison said he's noticed a big jump in suicides. Statistics support his observation.
Suicides in Kern County hit unprecedented levels in 2009, when 98 people took their own lives, the Kern County coroner's staff reported.
That's a 44 percent jump from the average of 68 in the first seven years of the 2000s decade. During that time, the population of Kern grew 25 percent.
After averaging about 60 or 70 a year in the last few decades, the number of suicides spiked to 90 in 2007, 80 in 2008 and what Supervising Deputy Coroner John VanRensselaer called "very high or darn close to a record" in 2009.
Through the first week in March, there have been 17 confirmed suicides this year, he said.
Between 2000 and 2006, the number of suicides ranged from 60 to 76 annually.
The last three years have been marked by a troubling economy, but VanRensselaer and Bill Walker, crisis services administrator for the Kern County Mental Health Department, didn't know for sure if that was responsible for the increase.
Historically, U.S. suicide rates have shown no clear association with times of economic recession, according to the American Association of Suicidology, a national nonprofit research and education organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide.
Although U.S. suicide rates did increase slightly during the Great Depression, subsequent U.S. recessions have not been found to lead to increased national rates of suicide in the period of or immediately following each recession, the association reported.
A survey of suicides in several California over the last five years counties shows some inconsistency. In 2009, Santa Barbara County was way up; Sacramento and Fresno counties were down, San Bernardino County was up a little, Tulare was up but well below two years ago, and San Joaquin County didn't have 2009 statistics but 2008 was up.
Dean Haddock, a Bakersfield psychologist who in the 1970s set up the emergency mental health services for the county department, said he's not surprised to see a spike in a troubled economy.
Breadwinners who lose a job for a long time, or bosses who have to lay off trusted friends, can experience depression and alcohol or drug use that play into suicide, he said.
Harrison attributes suicides to depressed people being bombarded with negative information on the Internet and the media. "It overwhelms (such) people," he said. "They don't have hope. Everything they believe in seems distorted. They don't see joy."
The numbers in Kern also highlight other suicide factors that mirror national research about suicides.
White males most prone to suicide
Most people who take their own lives are white males. During the last 10 years in Kern County, 80 percent of the suicides were males, and more than 73 percent were white.
Hispanics accounted for more than 18 percent and blacks were nearly 4 percent.
The AAS reported that men complete suicide at a rate four times that of women, but women attempt suicide three times more often than men.
The older men get, the more likely they are to try suicide, especially if they lose a job or authority, Walker said. The AAS said the highest suicides rates are for men 80 and older, but people 45 to 55 have high rates too.
Kern has had typically high numbers of suicides in the 40 to 60 age groups. The county also has a steady, but relatively low number of suicides in the age 10 to 19 group, VanRensselaer reported.
Most of those are ages 15 to 19, although he recalls suicides by children as young as 8 or 9, he said.
Bullying has been found to be a factor in younger suicides, experts report. Teens frequently associate their worth by people around them, said Walker, a marriage and family therapist.
Whereas an adult would react to criticism by saying, "What's wrong with you?" the teen tends to react by feeling, "What's wrong with me?" Walker said.
How it happens
Most people kill themselves at home with what they have -- their own gun, rope or pills, Walker said.
Removing the means of suicide reduces the number of suicides, the experts agree. For example, the barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge has shown to keep people from killing themselves. They don't go find some other way, Walker said.
One example is Kevin Hines who in 2000 as a 19-year-old college student jumped off the bridge and immediately regretted it. With about 4 seconds to the lethal waves 220 feet below, Hines turned himself upright and plunged into the water feet first. He fractured an ankle and broke his spine. But he survived. Only 29 people have ever done so.
He has since shared his story with the media, in conferences and in a documentary, "The Bridge," to help others prevent suicide.
Mental illness, personality disorders big factors
Mental illness and personality disorders are a major component of suicides even though it is also true that most people with those problems don't try to kill themselves, according to Walker, Haddock and the AAS.
Depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders such as anorexia, bipolar disorder, especially when combined with alcohol or drug abuse, are frequent trademarks in suicide. They lead to helplessness, hopelessness, loneliness, alienation and isolation, Walker said. Haddock added that drugs and alcohol lower impulse control.
Hines was bipolar.
Depression is dangerous, Haddock said, because "it affects how you think. People can feel hopeless and morbid with suicide as the only solution they have." If there's a family history of suicide, the odds go up, he said.
Harrison, generally known as a happy person with a great sense of humor, has shared from the pulpit that "I have suffered from depression most of my life. At times I've been medicated (for chemical imbalances). I understand the darkness, but I tell people there is hope and there is light."
Finding a purpose
Suicide is not a cowardly act. "It takes a lot of fortitude to do it," Haddock said. He used to work in the emergency room where he saw a lot of people who attempted suicide in ways that could only fall short.
People have to overcome their fear of death, said Haddock and other experts.
Harrison, who said he typically talks to two or three suicidal people a month, said he has talked people out of suicide. "I really try to tell them they have a purpose and I walk with them to find it," he said.
