Tight Economy Hamstrings Suicide Prevention Efforts

By Larry Fox

Like an uninvited guest, the spirit of “Recession Present” hovered over discussions during the Cape & Islands Suicide Prevention Coalition’s annual fall legislative breakfast at the Resort & Conference Center in Hyannis.

Only once was a direct connection made during the session attended by some 40 legislators, county officials and professional caregivers.

This occurred when Beth Albert of Barnstable County Human Services and co-chair of the coalition, noted that last fall there had been a spike in suicides among middle aged men on the Cape and that collaborating groups in Falmouth and subsequently Mashpee had been addressing the issue.

Middle aged men, the generation that grew up living with the perception that dad was the breadwinner responsible for supporting his family. Those most likely among the thousands losing jobs to have trouble finding new ones, to have seen their own businesses fail, their stock portfolios crumble, their homes lose value and their only asset a hefty, vested life insurance policy whose suicide exclusion clause no long was valid.

This was a surprise?

Only Representative Tim Madden of Nantucket in a brief comment mentioned the economy had to be a factor.

And when told that complete new data on this and other issues was not yet available, his Beacon Hill colleague, Randy Hunt of Sandwich, demanded, “Why not?”

The answer, he was told, was that the state has not fully processed this kind of data for the last two years. Data for 2010 are available, they said, but not complete.

Statistics quoted at this meeting noted that the suicide rate on Cape Cod is 1.5 times higher than for the Commonwealth at large—tied for the highest with one other county in the state—and that suicides in the state outnumber homicides by a 6-to-1 ratio. These are exactly the same as those quoted in this publication’s suicide study 23 months ago!

It’s not that the incidence of suicides has remained the same, they just haven’t updated the numbers.

And statistics are critical.

As Tim Lineaweaver of Quissett Counseling & Consulting, a co-chair of the coalition and session moderator, pointed out forcefully, “We must have accurate data and they must make that data more accessible. This information is what drives our response. There’s a power in it.”

Obviously, there hasn’t been the will, or the funding, to update this data base. But then there’s another problem.

Funding to create access points for those found to be in need of preventive counseling also has been shorted in tightened budgets.

“We keep seeking more money to get to these people so we can provide these services,” Mr. Lineaweaver continued. “But access is uneven and it must be within the individual communities. Because if people who need these services can’t get there in a timely fashion, bad things happen.”

Suicide, however, is the condition that dare not speak its name. It’s not even specified on vital records such as death certificates and it usually takes months for the medical examiner to determine the means of death. And there isn’t even specification of whether the victim is gay or lesbian or a veteran so that studies to assist these subsets where the rates are believed to be higher can be conducted. “And minorities and non-whites, too,” Senator Dan Wolf chimed in.

This stigma extends even to those who may just be contemplating this drastic action.

The coalition is hoping to organize a regional anti-stigma campaign. “We need to be more pro-active,” Mr. Lineaweaver concluded, “But again, we need the funding.”

And thus, once again, the spirit of “Recession Present” made its presence known.