Suicide prevention measures like hotlines, school curriculums, and telehealth have done nothing to slow the rate of suicide in the US, experts warn.
Over the past two decades, federal officials have launched three national suicide prevention strategies, which have focused on addressing risk factors, providing follow-up care, and evaluating at-risk populations like Native Americans.
Despite these efforts, however, suicide is still on the rise in the US, increasing about three percent from 2021 to 2022, the latest data available. In 2022, deaths by suicide hit a record high of 50,000, driven largely by increases in depression.
And earlier this year, suicide beat out Alzheimer’s to become the eighth leading cause of death among US men.
Despite several measures to lower suicide rates, mental health experts warned they have not made a difference in preventing deaths by suicide
Suicide rates in the US reached a record high in 2022 at more than 14 deaths per 100,000 people
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Pooja Mehta, mental health and suicide prevention advocate in Virginia, told KFF Health News that despite national measures, it can be difficult to see that a person is struggling, making it harder to prevent suicide.
‘We act like we know everything there is to know about suicide prevention,’ she said. ‘We’ve done a really good job at developing solutions for a part of the problem, but we really don’t know enough.’
She said that, for example, when her 19-year-old brother, Raj, died by suicide in March 2020, some people blamed her for his death because they felt her training should have made her able to see the signs.
The government’s latest strategy, the Federal Action Plan, involves more than 200 actions to be taken over the next three years to lower suicide rates and treat those most at risk.
These actions include sending out professionals to find patients when they call the 988 crisis hotline and preventing substance-abuse related suicides.
Additionally, the plan calls for increased education in schools about suicide, as well as rural youth programs like 4-H.
Older strategies included plans for follow-up mental health care for those who had attempted or decided against suicide, such as telehealth for therapy and access to medications.
But despite these measures, suicide is still on the rise in the US. In 2022, 49,500 adults died by suicide, an all-time high.
The data, the latest available from the CDC, also suggested that suicides are more common in the US than at any time since World War II.
Also in 2022, deaths by suicide increased by three percent over the year before, according to provisional data.
In 2021, there were 48,200 deaths by suicide, or one every 11 minutes.
The rates have been particularly grim in rural states like Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, with up to double the deaths compared to more urban areas.
CDC data shows between 2000 and 2020, suicide rates increased by 46 percent in non-metro areas compared to 27 percent in metro areas.
The above line graph shows increases in suicides per age group, according to the latest CDC figures for 2022
Experts have noted that this could be due to higher poverty rates and a lack of therapists and other behavioral health professionals in these areas of the country.
Kim Deti, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Health, told KFF Health News that while strategies like sending out crisis experts are promising, they are not going to be as effective in high-risk states like Wyoming.
‘The work is not stopping, but some strategies that make sense in some geographic areas of the country may not make sense for a state with our characteristics,’ she said.
Additionally, not all states have streamlined these measures. For example, one county may operate a mental health hotline 24 hours a day while the county next door runs from 9 am to 5 pm. And some states may deploy law enforcement instead of mental health workers, which could intimidate patients.
A poll from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos also found that only one in four Americans are familiar with the 988 crisis line.
