300 tackle teen suicides

PROVO — After Greg Hudnall recently spoke to a group of local government leaders about teenage suicide, one mayor told him never to set foot in his town.

The mayor told the Provo School District student services director that if he were to address suicide with children in his community, it would put ideas into their heads.

"That's where you're wrong," Hudnall said he replied to the city leader. "They're already thinking about it."

Hudnall faced no such hostility Wednesday during Provo's fifth annual Suicide Prevention Conference at Brigham Young University. Nearly 300 Utah educators, law enforcement officers and city officials representing 53 cities gathered to discuss ways to create and network prevention programs. Hudnall serves as executive director of the HOPE (Hold on. Persuade. Empower.) Task Force.

"We can't afford not work together anymore," said Michelle Moskos, an epidemiologist with the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center.

Trisha Keller, manager of violence and injury prevention for the Utah Department of Health, developed a statewide prevention plan due out in May. But it will take more than that to address a problem that "we should not be hiding in the closet."

"It really is going to take a grass-roots effort. It's something we can't dictate from a state level."

Not only do Utahns already think about suicide, they do it with alarming regularity compared to their peers around the country.

At 13.8 deaths per 100,000 people, the state has the ninth highest suicide rate in the nation. For 15— to 19—year—old Utah males, the rate is 23.6, nearly twice the national rate, according to Centers for Disease Control figures.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for Utahns ages 15 to 20 and the sixth-leading cause for ages 5 to 14. Hudnall noted the trend in Provo School district has moved to younger students.

Rocky Mountain states continue to have a higher suicide rate than other regions in the country, said Doug Gray, co-chairman of the Utah Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force. Access to guns might be one reason, he said, though he noted guns are more available in the southeastern United States but its suicide rates are lower.

Gray, a University of Utah associate professor of psychiatry, also pointed to a cultural bent toward independence as another possibility. But "I think the best answer is we don't understand this right now."