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Record-shattering suicides confound La Crosse County health officials

La Crosse Tribune (WI) - 12/21/2014

Dec. 21--The record-shattering number of 26 suicides in La Crosse County this year baffles and demoralizes those who work to stanch the bleeding.

Pinpointing the reasons for the spike -- up from the previous record of 18 last year -- is an elusive endeavor, said Geri Mulliner, a member of the La Crosse Area Suicide Prevention Initiative.

"A lot of people question whether it's the economy or financial troubles, but that doesn't add up because the rate would have been higher last year," Mulliner said.

County Medical Examiner Tim Candahl said, "It's a wide assortment of things -- mostly relationships and life in general. It doesn't seem to be the economy, which you'd think."

Mulliner and other initiative members are vexed that the toll is rising despite their decade of educational efforts to persuade troubled souls to seek help from a variety of sources.

"It surprises me greatly," said Mulliner, a registered nurse who works in behavioral health at Gundersen Health System'sOnalaska clinic. "It would be nice to say our group has made a difference.

"One difference is we see people more willing to talk about it, that it isn't something to be ashamed of but a serious problem that affects us all," she said.

The group has pressed such openness through campaigns and events aimed at removing the stigma from mental health issues that can lead to suicide.

The problem is not merely local.

A report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in October stated that the rates for the top 10 leading causes of death have been decreasing or holding steady -- except for No. 10, suicide. That rate rose 2 percent -- to 12.6 suicides per 100,000 people -- in 2011, the most recent national data available.

In Wisconsin, suicides rose between 2004 and 2011, with an average of 724 suicides from 2007 to 2011, according to the state Department of Health Services. About 5,500 Wisconsin residents a year are hospitalized because of intentional, self-inflicted injuries, the DHS says. A the CDC chronicled 713,000 emergency room visits for self-inflicted injuries in 2010.

Other Coulee Region counties report mixed figures, some of which were unavailable.

Trempealeau County has had five suicides this year, which Coroner Bonnie Kindschy said is on the low end of the usual tally of between five and nine.

Asked whether there is a pattern of provocation, Kindschy said, "I've tried to pinpoint by age and social living conditions. It's a little bit of everything. I wish I could" determine a cause.

In Jackson County, two people have lost their lives to suicide this year, compared with five last year.

Seven have died of suicide in Winona County this year, with previous years' tallies unavailable.

Whatever the reasons, totals or rates, "It's frustrating that it's happening," said Judy Shoults, an initiative member who has shared her own struggles with depression to help remove the stigma. "We're working on so many avenues to get the information out there."

Those endeavors include posting signs in restrooms of 10 to 15 businesses informing people about the group and where to get help, Shoults said.

Events include the annual daylong Suicide Prevention Summit, preceded by an awareness ceremony in Riverside Park in which empty chairs are stationed to symbolize the number of county residents who have lost their lives to suicide.

The initiative also had a float for the first time in the Rotary Lights Parade to focus attention on the crisis, initiative member Christine Hughes said.

"Most of the time, they're not getting help first," said Hughes, a clinical therapist at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse. "That's why it is so hard to determine the cause.

"It's a community-based intervention to identify people" showing signs of suicide risk, Hughes said. "Suicide prevention is really about trying to engage the community."

Some area residents are tapping into the texting crisis service that the nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Suicide launched in October and expanded into La Crosse County last month.

The service, in which people can text their troubles anonymously to 839863 to get assistance or comfort, has logged 150 messages from La Crosse County, said Barb Bigalke, founder and executive director of the nonprofit center in Kaukauna.

"La Crosse is doing great," Bigalke said, adding that the texts here and throughout the state are coming from parents as well as children.

Now open between 3:30 and 9 p.m. weekdays as prime after-school times, the service will expand to 24/7 in January, Bigalke said.

This time of year also raises concerns because of stress leading up to and after the holidays, as well as depression resulting from winter weather, Mulliner said.

"This season brings on stress," complicated by letdowns afterward because of unmet expectations, as well as trouble coping with winter weather, Mulliner said.

"We're concerned about people all year around, but the holidays and afterward bring on stress," she said.

The overall problem is "sort of a call to action to our community," Mulliner said. "Enough is enough -- we've got to do something."

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