When we at The Republic began hearing about trends that local officials were seeing — a sudden and alarming rise in suicide cases in the county this year — we believed this was an important story that the community needed to know about. We believed we had a duty to look into what was happening, and that readers had a right to know.
It’s not an easy subject to talk about, but it’s also one that we cannot ignore, especially given what we have learned from local officials.
As The Republic’s Andy East reported last week, there had been 11 people who died by suicide through Aug. 3, up from eight suicides during all of 2023 and six in 2022, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.
” …(T)he community is on pace for nearly 19 deaths by suicides, which would surpass the highest annual total on record of 16 suicides in 2019, according to data going back to 2015,” East reported.
“We are (on pace for) record numbers of suicides this year,” said Charlotte Barton Coombs, executive director of Family Service Inc. and coordinator of the Bartholomew County Suicide and Overdose Review Team, or SOFR. “… Patterns have emerged in our community that must be addressed quickly.”
The team Barton Coombs coordinates includes stakeholders from multiple disciplines including medical examiners, law enforcement, social services and more, who review individual deaths by suicide and overdose. Their aim, in essence, is to see what might be done in the future to prevent such deaths.
Barton Coombs described to East a trend the team is seeing in those who have taken their own lives that is perhaps counterintuitive. Increasingly, they are older — 45 to 70. More men than women are among those numbers, though she said more women than men unsuccessfully attempt suicide.
Every case is different, as are the motivations, but Barton Coombs said guns are a common thread locally in many cases.
“We could be looking at a record year, and that’s unacceptable to me when I know that there are things that we can do,” Barton Coombs told East.
We agree. And one of the most important things that can be done is informing the public of what the risks are, what this team is seeing, and what steps we can take as individuals and as a community to prevent suicides.
And there are things that the community can do by way of support groups and charitable efforts that address the need for suicide prevention and that provide comfort to those affected by it.
Another important thing we can do individually is to not ignore this. We need to talk about it. We need to be there for survivors, and we need to do everything we can to talk with compassion and understanding to people who are in crisis and who may be contemplating suicide.
Perhaps it is naive to think that we can prevent every suicide, but we have got to try to. And the first thing everyone should know in that regard is this: 988. That is the number for the suicide prevention hotline. It is confidential and staffed 24/7 with trained counselors who are there to help.
As Barton Coombs said, there are things that we can do to help. This is a start.
