LIHU‘E — There were five suicides in one week — two in one day — in May. These five deaths last month nearly eclipsed the 2008 yearly total of six suicides. LIHU‘E — There were five suicides in one week
LIHU‘E — There were five suicides in one week — two in one day — in May. These five deaths last month nearly eclipsed the 2008 yearly total of six suicides.
LIHU‘E — There were five suicides in one week — two in one day — in May.
These five deaths last month nearly eclipsed the 2008 yearly total of six suicides.
“It’s been a brutal month” in terms of deaths and suicides, said Gina Kaulukukui of the Kaua‘i Police Department, Prevent Suicide Kaua‘i Task Force and Prevent Suicide Hawai‘i Task Force.
At Monday’s monthly meeting of the Prevent Suicide Kaua‘i Task Force, Kaulukukui said the ages of the three men and two women who took their own lives, from 50s to 70s, is in stark contrast to the much younger ages of people who in May either tried to commit suicide or had ideations (ideas, images or concepts) of committing suicide.
There were 14 suicide ideations recorded last month. Most were males, ages ranging from teens to one man in his 60s. Five were female, from pre-teens to one in her 80s.
There were 11 attempted suicides, mostly through overdosing on drugs, with five teenagers, three people in their 20s, two in their 40s and one in his 50s; seven male and four female.
It is entirely coincidental, said Kaulukukui, that the week of five suicides came soon after The Garden Island ran a series on this issue. She credited the newspaper for illuminating the topic she called “the elephant in the room,” adding that several factors — not the articles — led the people to end their lives.
“Those are kind of alarming,” she said of the May statistics of completed, attempted and considered suicides.
In addition to what members of the task force consider “pukas,” or holes, in the mental-health system, specifically people not knowing how to access help and a lack of resources with cuts being made in attempts to balance the state budget in light of reduced tax revenues, the committee also lamented about the lack of services for teens on the island in terms of suicide and drug abuse prevention.
Sessions are set in September for training in a program called safeTALK.
Nearly 2,000 Honolulu Police Department officers have been trained in the program to learn suicide-alertness skills. The last time a session was held on Kaua‘i, 32 people attended, said Kaulukukui.
An all-day, train-the-trainer course on safeTALK is also planned for a day between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11, which is National Suicide Prevention Week.
See www.livingworks.net for more information on safeTALK and ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), a program for caregivers.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255), has trained telephone counselors answering the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
