2018 was a very bad year for youth suicides in Grant County

GRANT COUNTY — In Grant County, a county with just under 100,000 residents, more young people under the age of 19 died by suicide last year than in any other county of its size, according to data collected by the Washington State Department of Health.

Only the state’s five largest counties, including Snohomish, King, Pierce, Spokane and Clark counties, lost more of their youth to suicide than Grant County in 2018, the data shows. Eighty-eight young people took their lives across the state’s 39 counties last year, and though 16 counties lost none in 2018, Grant County lost four.

Those figures are even starker for children under 14, two of whom, an 11- and a 13-year-old, died by suicide within two weeks of each other in Grant County last year. Only King County, a county with over 2.2 million residents, had even one more child under the age of 14 die by suicide last year.

2018 was not the typical year for Grant County, which usually experiences a below-average number of suicide deaths among the general population. Between 2000 and 2018, Grant County saw an annual average of 11.6 suicides per 100,000 residents, while the state saw an average of 13.2 per 100,000 during the same period.

Among those between the ages of 10 and 24, Grant County had slightly fewer suicides than average between 2013 and 2017, with 12 deaths over the course of those five years.

But last year stood out, both for suicides among youths and the general population. In 2018, 18 people died by suicide in Grant County, for an adjusted rate of 19 per 100,000 residents, above the state average of 16.2 per 100,000. With four people under the age of 19 who died by suicide last year, the county saw almost double the annual average.

It is important to note, however, that with numbers in the single digits even small fluctuations can drastically change rates year to year.

Though 2018 may have been an outlier for Grant County, suicides among both youths and the general population have increased steadily nationwide in recent years. In 2008, 2.8 per 100,000 children age 10-17 and 11.7 per 100,000 young people age 18-24 died by suicide; by 2017, those numbers had increased to 5.3 and 16.3 respectively.

Washington had worse rates of youth suicide than the national average during the same time period. In 2017, 6.7 per 100,000 children age 10-17 and 23.4 per 100,000 young people age 18-24 died by suicide in the state.

“So yes, there has been a rise in youth suicides even specifically here in Grant County, Washington,” wrote Dell Anderson, interim executive director for Grant Integrated Services, the primary public mental health care provider in Grant County. “This is a disturbing trend which has concerned parents and professionals throughout our County.”

In an attempt to address the growing problem, local hospital systems, primary care settings, behavioral health, and educational settings have worked to provide opportunities for better screening and increased access to services for those needing help, Anderson said.

Anderson pointed to recommendations from the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America for ways to further help those experiencing suicidal behaviors or thoughts.

Those recommendations include establishing better links between different service providers, improving access to services, reducing stigma around mental health and identifying individuals at risk through primary care screenings.

The coalition also recommends reducing access to firearms, which are significantly more likely to be lethal than other common methods of suicide.

Though Grant County is currently on track to have fewer youth suicides this year than in 2018, the year has not been without tragedy. In August, a 14-year-old took his life just weeks before he was to become a freshman in high school.

Not everyone who is suicidal dies by the disease, either, and four suicidal youths have been reported to police since October. Across the general population, Samaritan Hospital saw over 200 patients that were found to be suicidal during their assessment over the past 12 months, according to data provided by the hospital.

So while the numbers may level out by the end of 2019, the problem hasn’t gone anywhere.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.