The world lost two icons by suicide this week, celebrity chef and adventurer Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade. While both deaths leave permanent holes in U.S. \u2013\u00a0and global \u2013\u00a0culture, they are an opportunity for a much-needed discussion on suicide prevention.<\/p>\n
The deaths come on the heels of an alarming report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that shows America\u2019s suicide rate rose 30% between 1999 and 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the murder rate has fallen dramatically over the past four decades, suicide is on the rise, and the reasons are multiple.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuicide in this country really is a problem that is impacted by so many factors. It\u2019s not just a mental health concern,\u201d Deborah Stone, lead author of the CDC\u2019s new study, told NPR. \u201cThere are many different circumstances and factors that contribute to suicide. And so, that\u2019s one of the things that this study really shows us. It points to the need for a comprehensive approach to prevention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the findings published in the CDC\u2019s \u201cMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,\u201d\u00a054% of those who died by suicide in 2015 did not have a known mental health condition. Stone noted\u00a0that\u00a0\u201cinstead, these folks were suffering from other issues, such as relationship problems, substance misuse, physical health problems, job or financial problems, and recent crises or things that were coming up in their lives that they were anticipating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suicide rates rose in every state in the nation besides Nevada. Delaware saw the smallest increase at 5.9%, while North Dakota saw a 57.6% increase over the same period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While current suicide prevention strategies largely revolve around identifying suicidal people and referring them to help lines, the CDC believes the effort should\u00a0span\u00a0individual, family, relationship, community, and societal levels: \u201cSuch a comprehensive approach underscores that suicide is rarely caused by any single factor, but rather, is determined by multiple factors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (en Espa\u00f1ol: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889 or chat), the\u00a0Trans\u00a0Lifeline\u00a0at (877)565-8860, The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386\u200b, or the Crisis Text Line by texting \u201cHOME\u201d to 741741. <\/em><\/p>\n For international hotlines, please click\u00a0here.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Share image by Peabody Awards\/Flickr and Today\/YouTube.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world lost two icons by suicide this week, celebrity chef and adventurer Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade. While both deaths leave permanent holes in U.S. \u2013\u00a0and global \u2013\u00a0culture, they are an opportunity for a much-needed discussion on suicide prevention. The deaths come on the heels of an alarming report by the U.S….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}