Mental Health Care Practice
Improving Veteran Engagement With Mental Health Care
The VA is intent on reducing and preventing veteran deaths by suicide. Most veteran who die by suicide, however, did not get treatment from the...
More than half a million people committed suicide between 2001 and 2015, according to the CDC. Rural counties consistently had higher rates than those of metropolitan areas. “While we’ve seen many causes of death come down in recent years, suicide rates have increased more than 20% from 2001 to 2015,” said Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, CDC director. “And this is especially concerning in rural areas.”
Related: Suicide Federal Health Data Trends
Suicide rates in rural counties were 17.32 per 100,000 people compared with 14.86 in small-to-medium metropolitan counties and 11.92 in large metropolitan counties. Rates for American Indian/Alaska Native non-Hispanics were the highest.
The researchers note that, at some points, different negative factors had more impact. For instance, rural communities were harder hit by housing foreclosures, poverty, and unemployment due to the recession. However, the researchers also point out that suicide rates were on the rise before the recession began.
“The trends in suicide rates…are magnified in rural areas,” said James Mercy, PhD, director of CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention. “This report underscores the need for suicide prevention strategies that are specifically tailored for these communities.” To that end, the CDC recently released a compilation of evidence-based strategies that have the greatest prevention potential. The set includes examples of programs that can be customized to fit the cultural needs of different groups. In North Dakota, for instance, the program Sources of Strength was developed for tribal communities to promote connectedness between youth and adults.
Related: Improving Veteran Engagement With Mental Health Care
The Health Resource and Service Administration (HRSA) also has developed activities to address suicide in rural areas, including epidemiologic studies, research, telemedicine, and programs addressing primary health care providers.
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/technical-packages.html