Page 63 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023
P. 63

     BusinessWest
<< HEALTHCARE >>
MARCH 6, 2023 63
Out of the Darkness
Talking About Suicide Is the First Step in Preventing It
BY KAILEY HOULE
In 2020, suicide took 45,979 lives in the U.S. — one death every 11 minutes, and twice the number of homicides. Many factors enter into someone’s decision to end their life, which can often seem like the best decision to make the pain go away; these factors include, but are not limited
to, mental and physical health conditions; stress from harass- ment, divorce, financial crisis, or other life transitions; loss, abuse, neglect, and/or trauma; or family history of suicide.
Even though suicide rates actually dropped 5% from 2019 to 2020, the isolation during the pandemic caused more mental-health issues; in fact, one in five adults dealt with a mental-health issue in 2020. And isolation is the number-one symptom of suicidal ideation, according to behavioral-health professionals who spoke with BusinessWest.
“The isolation may have been comforting to people. They don’t have to leave the house. Then that may have been com- forting, not having to face different outside factors,” explained Elizabeth Therian, program director for Behavioral Health Net- work (BHN). “But on the flip side, the pandemic also increased a lot of the risk factors, such as domestic-violence situations, and increased anxiety for a lot of people, like this big fear of the unknown virus that there wasn’t much known about.”
Cristina Rivera, director of Outpatient Services at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center, agreed and added that increased substance use was another factor during the pandemic because of the lack of support for many people. Other common symptoms include, but are not limited to:
 























































































   61   62   63   64   65