ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — According to recent data, the suicide cases in Missouri have increased by almost 33% between 2012 and 2018.
More than 20 out of every 100,000 Missourians died from intentional self-harm in 2018, 33% higher than the national average.
Suicide ranks as the 10th leading cause of death in the state and the leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults, with people in rural counties more likely to die by suicide than in urban ones.
Project Director Katie Ellison and her colleagues at the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ Missouri Institute of Mental Health is aware of those facts, and they’re working to change that.
She proposed that one way to do so is to reduce the availability of guns for people with suicidal thinking or substance use disorder.
Ellison said that firearms are the most common method by which people die in a suicide attempt. “And the science also says that because the suicide crisis can be so brief, if we make them hard to access or unfirable, then someone can interrupt that suicide crisis. That person has enough time to think through and work their way out or self-resolve those suicidal feelings.”
Since February, Ellison has been leading the Gun Suicide Prevention Planning Project. The goal is to build a coalition to focus on mental health and suicide prevention. Missouri Foundation for Health funds a $350,000 grant to the plan currently being developed in Southeast Missouri. Associate Research Professor Elizabeth Sale is the primary investigator.
The project engages community members in Butler County, Missouri, including health care providers, educators, employers, clergy members, suicide attempt and loss survivors, LGBTQ individuals, and others through a public awareness campaign. It also aims to build a persistence care program throughout the community so that at-risk individuals are getting the support they need.
According to Ellison, the team is partnering with gun owners and gun retailers in the communities to promote safe storage strategies among their customers, with the agreement that everyone would like to know how to prevent suicide.
Meanwhile, the Missouri Department of Mental Health has funded the Zero Suicide Initiative with Family Counseling Center, a private certified community behavioral health organization that serves 19 counties in Southeast Missouri.
Health care systems in the state use Zero Suicide’s framework to ensure if someone has any contact with those who are potentially suicidal, they can help them by referring to the support they need.
The Missouri Institute of Mental Health team intends to involve some of the largest employers in Butler County in their efforts to raise awareness and train people to recognize at-risk people.