In 2007, Missoula County recorded 24 suicides, for a total of 156 suicides since 1999.
“It's the highest I can recall,” said Capt. Greg Hintz of the Missoula County Sheriff's Office, which keeps track of annual mortality rates in Missoula.
According to the recent numbers, Montana's rate of suicide ranks No. 1 among the 50 states, and has hovered among the top five states for the past two decades.
Between 1999 and 2005, the most recent year for which information is available, an average of 179 Montana residents died by suicide each year. The data show that 206 Montanans died of suicide in 2005 for a rate of 22 suicides per 100,000 residents - exactly twice the national average.
Meanwhile, Nevada reported a rate of 19.9, while Alaska came in second with 19.7. Wyoming reported 90 suicides in 2005 for a rate of 17.7, placing fourth alongside New Mexico.
To get a handle on the problem, the 2007 Montana Legislature spent roughly $400,000 on a bill to fund suicide prevention, sponsored by state Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish.
Principal among those measures was hiring Karl Rosston, the suicide prevention coordinator for Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services, which funds more than a dozen suicide-prevention programs statewide.
“We're hoping that with some of these additional measures we can pull ourselves up,” said Rosston, who hopes to see Montana move out of the top 10, which could save as many as 100 lives a year.
Rosston said about half the overall funding will be spent on Montana's suicide prevention hot line, which routes Missoula residents' calls to Voices of Hope in Great Falls.
Rosston also has intends to introduce the Massachusetts-based SOS (Signs of Suicide) prevention program to schools across Montana, and to work with the University of Montana to build awareness of the mental health services available to college students.
Because law enforcement often encounter people with mental disorders in times of crisis, Rosston hopes to introduce crisis intervention training as part of the Montana Law Enforcement Academy's curriculum.
Maureen O'Malley is coordinator of the Missoula City-County Health Department's suicide prevention network, which was created several years ago through a $10,000 governor's grant and operates on a “shoestring budget.”
“Montana got some of the first funding because our rates are so high, not so much our raw numbers but our per-capita numbers,” O'Malley said.
O'Malley sees a stigma against seeking treatment for mental health disorders among Montanans, which has retained a “culture of suicide” through the years. She also blamed a lack of access to mental health services in parts of the state as a factor.
“People in rural areas reassure themselves that these feelings of depression will pass, and so they don't reach out in a timely manner,” she said. “We need to be as open about mental disorders as we are about physical disorders. It's really about breaking down those barriers.”
Missoula County's prevention project is funded by federal legislation under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act of 2005. The goal of the network is to offer training and develop projects that aim to reduce Missoula's high suicide rates.
“The backbone of the program is building awareness, educating people about the symptoms and trying to increase access to mental health services,” she said.
O'Malley doesn't know what caused Missoula's spike in suicides last year, but noted that two-thirds of the suicides statewide involved firearms.
“We don't have anything to pin this on, but we knew our suicide rate was going to be bad by fall,” she said.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, O'Malley suggests calling the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.
“We're not going to make things worse by talking about it, we're going to make them worse by not talking about it,” O'Malley said.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com
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