(This article is about suicide. If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.)
By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A group of Wood County officials have begun the process of reviewing local suicides in order to prevent future attempts from occurring.
The first meeting of the Wood County Suicide Fatality Review Board was held last week at the county health department, with the goal of reducing preventable suicide deaths by improving understanding of how and why suicides occur.
Sitting around the table were representatives of the Wood County Health Department; Wood County Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services; BGSU Community and Well-Being; National Alliance on Mental Illness; Wood County Juvenile Court; Wood County Protective Services; and Wood County Sheriff’s Office.
“We seek to understand what contributes to these deaths,” and potentially identify trends, said Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison, who is chairperson of the review board. “What we should be and can be doing differently.”
The purpose will be to identify needs, influence policy, and strengthen programs that enhance mental health capacity and access.
In preparation for establishing the board, some basic information was gathered by Tyler Briggs, head of the epidemiology division at the health department. In 2024, he presented information about local suicides.
Suicide is responsible for an average 16 deaths a year in Wood County – with firearms accounting for approximately 65% of those deaths. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Wood County, Briggs reported. Many more individuals consider or take steps to end their lives. Young adults were at the highest risk, followed by youths between 10-18. Men account for over 70% of suicide deaths in Wood County.
Briggs also reported on mental health information gathered during the Wood County Community Health Assessment in 2021. That data showed:
- 12% of adults reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row, 3% contemplated suicide, and 3% attempted suicide.
- 10% of adults who looked for a mental health program could not find one.
- 3% of adults didn’t get care because of long delays to get an appointment.
“Some of these percentages seem small, but they really aren’t,” Briggs said, putting those numbers in perspective.
For example, those stats mean about 16,000 local residents reported feeling depression for an extended period of time, 500 attempted suicide, and about 13,000 couldn’t find mental health services.
In addition to using data from the community health assessment and county vital statistics, Briggs said he also made some “cold calls” to facilities providing mental health services locally.
It was not uncommon to be told that the wait time for therapy was six months, Briggs said.
Briggs presented the following information:
- The number of Wood County people who were treated annually after attempting suicide or talking about suicide grew from fewer than 300 in 2015, to more than 700 in 2023.
- Individuals aged 20-24 are the most identified age group for suicide ideation followed closely by those 10-19.
- Females make up 55% of suicide ideation healthcare visits in Wood County.
- Since 2019, males account for 73% of suicides in Wood County, until 2023 when suicides were equal in numbers for males and females.
- From 2019-2023, Wood County suicides are most often committed by firearms, with guns accounting for 65% of suicides, followed by 24% by suffocation, 5% by overdose, and 5% by other trauma.
- Overdoses included the use of anxiety medication, opioids and insulin. All the suicides by overdose were females.
- 80% of the firearm suicides were males.
Suicide death data included in this report is based off of county of residence. Reports provided by Wood County Vital Stats include suicides based on county of death.
By setting up a Suicide Fatality Review Board, Wood County will be committed to participate in a state suicide data program.
Suicide prevention is complex and requires a comprehensive approach. The review board plans to access information through next-of-kin interviews, toxicology reports, prescription histories, and common risk factors.
“Every loss of life is tragic,” Robison said. “It’s an opportunity for us to better understand contributing factors to suicides, and intervene.”
Following are the objectives adopted by the board last week:
- Encourage collaboration among all agencies involved in suicide prevention, early intervention, treatment and postvention.
- Assess suicide data to identify common risk factors, circumstances, trends and patterns.
- Analyze local system responses to suicide deaths to better understand contributing factors.
- Promote communication among public health, mental health, education, law enforcement and other community partners.
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive database of local suicide deaths, capturing risk/protective factors and circumstances.
- Synthesize local suicide data to inform community and state-level decision making.
- Recommend policy and program changes based on collected data.
- Ensure consistent reporting of factors and systems associated with suicide deaths.
- Identify opportunities to improve suicide prevention, early intervention and treatment practices.
- Highlight and optimize protective factors that prevent suicide.
- Address cultural factors to ensure prevention strategies are culturally relevant.
- Share suicide data, trends and patterns with local and state agencies.
- Improve delivery of postvention services to families and communities.
- Ensure members recognize secondary trauma risks and support one another.
- Develop recommendations to improve review and investigation processes.
Resources:
• Unison Crisis Stabilization Unit: 419-352-4624
• Suicide Prevention Hotline:text 4HOPE to 741741
• National Suicide Hotline: 988
• Wood County Crisis Line: 419-502-4673 (HOPE)
• Children’s Resource Center (18 and younger): 419-352-7588
• Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255 Press 1 or text 838255
• The Trevor Project (LGBTQ): text START to 678678
• Wood County Suicide Prevention Coalition: 419-352-8475
- Harbor Behavioral Health: 419-352-5387
