Not long ago, a prominent psychiatrist in a small Wyoming town committed suicide. Everybody knew who he was, but nobody recognized the danger signs. As a result, a suicide prevention group formed that has worked aggressively in the community. For every two homicides in America, three people commit suicide. Berman notes there is more firearm use in suicides than homicides, and more adolescents dying by suicides than homicides.
Suicide is perceived to be something that happens to loners.
No one prescription for suicide prevention exists, but experts are learning more about the risks that can lead to it. Some of the latest insights will be coming out of a new suicide-prevention center that has been set up, appropriately enough, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Getting people to reconnect One focus of many community campaigns is to get people to reconnect with those around them. But most communities can point to recent examples of what happens when the warning signs go unheeded. Two years ago, a survey was conducted through the Yellowstone County, Mont., school district that indicated 14 percent of high school students had considered suicide at some point during the past year.