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Survey finds many Oklahoma school children have suicidal thoughts

Daily Oklahoman - 8/30/2020

Aug. 30--Editor's note: If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, help is available. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. You can also find Oklahoma resources here.

More than 1 in 5 Oklahoma adolescent school children who took a national survey reported seriously thinking about suicide within the prior 12 months. More than 1 in 9 reported actually attempting to take their own lives.

And the survey was conducted in 2019, before COVID-19 forced a statewide shutdown of Oklahoma schools last spring -- ratcheting up the anxiety levels of school children and their families.

Oklahoma mental health professionals say there is reason for concern, but note that suicide trends don't always go the way people expect and say the true impact of COVID-19 may not be known for two or three years.

"Definitely a lot of uncertainty takes its toll on mental health," said Shelby Rowe, suicide prevention program manager for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. "If you have someone who already is struggling with anxiety or depression and you add this huge layer of uncertainty, it increases risk."

COVID-19 has caused job losses and increases in family strife, domestic violence and substance abuse, all of which are risk factors tied to suicide, she said.

Mental health professionals also are concerned because COVID-19 has caused increased deaths and disrupted the way people normally come together through funeral rituals and family gatherings to process their grief, Rowe said.

That doesn't necessarily mean there will be increase in suicides, however, she said, adding that there are some preliminary indications that suicides may be trending downward in the state.

During times of disaster, calls for help typically go up but actual suicides often go down because there is a feeling that "we're all in this together" and people often do a better job of reaching out to check on each other and offer support, Rowe said.

But the economic fallout from COVID-19 will cause some families to struggle financially, lose homes and become involved with substance abuse, which could cause a spike in suicide rates in two or three years, she said.

Oklahoma's mental health officials aren't standing idly by.

Rowe and Jeff Dismukes, state mental health communications director, said agency employees are extremely proud of the success they are having pivoting to the use of telehealth services.

With telehealth services, people don't have to travel to receive mental health help so attendance has been really good, they said.

Dismukes said the program has been so successful they hope to continue using it in a big way once the COVID-19 crisis subsides.

Rowe said the agency is also having good success with a youth crisis mobile response program in which a crisis team goes out to wherever it is needed to perform a mental health assessment and provide services.

Oklahomans who are in need of mental health assistance can call 211 or 1-800-522-9054 and they will be directed to the help they need, Dismukes said.

The information that more than 1 in 5 Oklahoma school children surveyed in 2019 reported having seriously considered suicide within the prior 12 months was based on a Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System survey of a representative sample of 9th through 12th grade students. The study, which is done every two years, was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey of Oklahoma school children showed:

--22.2% reported they had seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months. (National average is 18.8%.)

--17.9% said they had made a plan to commit suicide within the previous 12 months. (National average is 15.7%.)

--11.7% said they had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months. (National average is 8.9%.)

--38.6% said they had experienced the feeling of hopelessness and sadness for a constant period of two weeks or greater during the prior 12 months. (National average is 36.7%.)

All four Oklahoma percentages were higher than the national average and higher than they were two years earlier in Oklahoma.

Rowe said the percentage of surveyed Oklahoma boys who said they had seriously considered suicide increased from 10.9% in 2015 to 16.7% in 2019, and the percentage of girls who answered that way increased from 19.9% in 2015 to 27.9% in 2019.

The biggest increase for boys was between 2017 and 2019, while the biggest increase for girls was between 2015 and 2017.

The number of Oklahoma adolescents who actually commit suicide is far fewer than those who attempt it, Rowe said.

In the 15-19-year-old age bracket, there were 38 Oklahoma deaths by suicide in 2016. That number rose to 51 in 2017, before dropping back down to 38 in 2018, she said. The agency has not yet received final numbers for 2019.

Dismukes said, overall, suicide numbers appear to be trending downward in Oklahoma even though risk factors have been going up.

"That is a positive statement regarding the effectiveness of prevention initiatives and services that have been put in place," he said.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

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