Health official alarmed by record 12 suicides so far this year in Eagle County

There have been 12 suicides so far this year in Eagle County — five more than the annual average and a staggering pace of 23 per 100,000 residents. The Colorado per capita suicide rate was 20.3 per 100,000 residents in 2016, which is well ahead of the national rate of 13.3 suicides per 100,000 in 2015.

Chris Lindley

What’s alarming to Eagle County Public Health and Environment Director Chris Lindley, an epidemiologist by trade, is that a county of just over 53,000 people is on a record pace for suicides this year and we’re just now entering the holiday season when there are typically more suicide deaths.

“Right now in Eagle County this year there’s been 12 suicides,” Lindley said. “Nobody’s talking about that. That is more than last year, and we’re only part way through the year. The majority of those suicides have been women. Normally suicides are 9 to 1 men to women.

“Why aren’t we asking ourselves what the hell is going on? Why are our moms and our sister and our daughters taking their lives? What are we missing here?”

Anyone in need of free, local 24/7 crisis services, for themselves of for a friend, should use these numbers:

• 24/7 Local Crisis Hotline: 888-207-4004
• 24/7 Colorado Crisis Services Statewide Hotline: 844-493-TALK (8255)
• 24/7 Text Line: Text TALK to 38255

But Lindley also urges people to connect with other people. Look out for your friends and neighbors and ask them how they’re doing.

“We’ve got to change this culture of everything’s just in time and I’m going to text you or Facebook or Twitter you versus I’m just going to walk up and ask you how you’re doing, or I’m going to go for a walk with you, or I’m going to come hang out,” Lindley said.

“We have to schedule and make time to have personal interaction with each other. We are fundamentally human, we’re mammals. We’re designed for that. And I think one of the biggest increases in mental health illness is a lack of social interaction that people are having.”

Nothing can substitute for actually interacting with other people and assessing their mood, Lindley said, especially this time of year.

“As technology improves, it’s actually hurting us,” Lindley said. “It’s not helping us. Talking to someone via text message, there’s no real social connectiveness between two people. You can’t read their body language or anything like that.”

The Iraq War veteran and former state health department worker also would like to see dramatically stepped-up mental health services in Eagle County, where there currently are no in-patient beds for mental health or substance abuse issues.

Eagle County Ballot Issue 1A, being decided by voters Nov. 7, would change all of that with a tax on recreational marijuana to fund mental health and substance abuse services throughout Eagle County.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail

David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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