Community Corner

Public Suicides In Groton Call For Community Action

Groton firefighter Tim Devine's death last week after an armed standoff at UConn Avery Point points to the need for people to recognize the signs of depression — and speak up.

 

In the last 17 months, four people have committed suicide in public places in Groton. Mental health experts say this speaks to the need for greater community awareness of people’s private pain, and the importance of speaking up.

“I think that there should be discussion about it,” said Dr. Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. But she added, “I think what you need to talk about is not death and not suicide, but depression.”

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at the , was the most recent to take his own life. Last spring and summer, three others committed suicide in public places, a and

According to state suicide statistics compiled by the Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board, New London County reported 189 suicides from 2005 to 2012, a rate of 9.5 per 100,000 people. The state rate for the same period was 8 per 100,000.

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Fairfield County reported the lowest rate, at 6.3 per 100,00 people, and Middlesex County the highest, at 11.1.

Be Direct

Dr. Bertrand Duval-Arnould, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, said just taking the time to notice that someone is in pain is a key first step in preventing them from harming themself.

“If we are caring for each other a bit more, that would be the first thing,” to do that would help, Duval-Arnould said.

If a colleague is distraught at work or a friend is crying and depressed, instead of complaining about the boss or going out drinking, he said ask the person, ‘How are you doing with this?”

Duval-Arnould said not to be afraid to ask the direct question: "Are you thinking of killing yourself?" Asking doesn't make it more likely to happen, he said; most of the time, people are relieved someone asked.

“Be respectful. Don’t patronize it, or be judgmental, like, ‘Oh, things could be worse. You have everything to live for. You have a family.  You have a job.’  That’s not helping,” he said. “What helps is to ask specific questions, (like) ‘What is causing you to feel so bad?’”

“Don’t think that you can fix these things,” he said. “Take the person to the emergency room, and do it with a lot of compassion and understanding.

"Say, ‘We’ll go together and I’ll be with you.’”

Lawrence & Memorial handles crisis intervention in the emergency room, offers an outpatient program and has 17 inpatient psychiatric beds that are pretty much full all the time, Duval-Arnould said.

He said encouraging someone to seek treatment is important, but sometimes it’s not enough. “Sometimes they are so disabled by the illness they are not even able to dial the phone number,” he said.

He said someone in despair may be overwhelmed by the health care system, or by the process of getting insurance approval, or just embarrassed to seek help, and they need someone to make that call, he said.

Youth and Despair

In 2010, Groton youth were surveyed about their views on topics including substance abuse, smoking and depression.

As part of the survey, 982 students in grades 7-12 were also asked about the degree to which they felt sad, lonely or like no one cared about them.

One question asked students to agree or disagree with this statement: "I wish I were dead."

Of the total, 14.8 percent of eighth-graders, 8.4 percent of ninth-graders, 12.9 percent of 10th-graders, 5.2 percent of 11th graders and 5.6 percent of 12th-graders said they either agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.

The survey was sponsored by the Groton Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition under the supervision of Ledge Light Health District. The survey also showed 19 percent or more of students in grades 7 through 10 reported feeling sad "most of the time."

Groton's Archie Swindell, who complied the data, said a follow-up survey for 2012 is being compiled and is expected to be released shortly.

Clues Along The Way

When a suicide is public, it can be traumatizing because there are witnesses, and the circumstances cannot be denied, said Clayton, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention medical director. But it's also not unusual for people to describe feeling shocked, or to remember the person's life while not recalling the negatives, experts said.

“The reality is most every suicide leaves clues along the way,” said Dr. Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology.

The reasons behind the recent suicides in Groton are unclear. Berman said four is not a large sample size and all four have unique back-stories. But he said healthy people doing well don't take their own lives.  

"It just doesn’t happen. There was something happening behind the scenes; but everyone has a public, personal and a private life,” he said.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports 90 percent of people who die by suicide are coping with a mental disorder at the time of their death.

Clayton said: “These people are just in pain.”

She said killing oneself in public may be done to avoid violating the home by tainting it with the memory of a death, or it may be a more aggresssive effort to be heard, she said.

Economics and Pain

While suicide figures have remained fairly stable when looked at over extended periods of time, Clayton said data show there is a connection between job loss and death by suicide and more recently, economic hardship.

United Way’s 2-1-1, number, which handles calls for assistance including suicide-related calls in Connecticut, took 1,954 such calls from Jan. 1, 2012, to July 24, in which the caller expressed feeling suicidal or feeling that way in the past.

The data showed a 75 percent increase in such calls compared to the same time last year, according to Maria Dynia, a research and evaluation manager for United Way of Connecticut.

“While suicide calls most often relate to mental health, substance abuse or relationship issues, 2-1-1 has received suicide calls which relate to the challenge of keeping up with basic needs such as housing, food and medication,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Call specialists sometimes hear callers express fear that their economic condition will worsen.”

Suicide and Ambivalence

Andrea Duarte, suicide prevention manager with the state Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, said the state is trying to focus attention on awareness through a campaign that encourages people to reach out.

“I think it’s gotten to the point where people are starting to recognize that it’s not just an individual problem but a community problem,” she said.

The key, she added, is recognizing signs and expressing basic care for others.

“Just take the extra moment to say, ‘I’m really concerned about you,’” she said.

Duarte said a man who survived a suicide attempt by jumping from a bridge described standing on the bridge for a long time crying as people passed by.

Finally, a couple stopped, and he was relieved they might ask him what was wrong, she said. Instead, they asked if he would take their picture, she said.

Right afterward, he jumped, she said.

The instant he did he regretted it, and was trying to figure out how to land to save his life, she said.

Duarte said people contemplating suicide often feel ambivalent and want someone to ask them directly whether they’re considering it, and help.

“Be the one to start the conversation,” she said.

RESOURCES

Warning signs of suicide (source: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention)

  • Talking about wanting to die
  • Looking for a way to kill oneself
  • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
  • Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
  • Talking about being a burden to others
  • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
  • Acting anxious, agitated or recklessly
  • Sleeping too little or too much
  • Withdrawing or feeling isolated
  • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
  • Displaying extreme mood swings

What to do (source: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention)

  • Do not leave the person alone
  • Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt
  • Call 2-1-1 in Connecticut or the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
  • Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.


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