Suicide prevention measures such as hotlines, school programs and telehealth have done nothing to reduce the suicide rate in the United States, experts warn.
Over the past two decades, federal officials have launched three national suicide prevention strategies, which have focused on addressing risk factors, providing follow-up care and screening at-risk populations such as Native Americans.
Yet despite these efforts, suicide continues to rise in the United States: between 2021 and 2022, according to the latest available data, it increased by about 3%. In 2022, suicide deaths reached a record 50,000, driven largely by rising depression.
And earlier this year, suicide surpassed Alzheimer’s to become the eighth leading cause of death among American men.
Despite several measures to reduce suicide rates, mental health experts have warned that they have not made a difference in preventing suicide deaths.
Suicide rates in the US hit a record high in 2022 with more than 14 deaths per 100,000 people
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Pooja Mehta, a mental health and suicide prevention advocate in Virginia, said KFF Health News That despite national measures, it can be difficult to see that a person is struggling, making suicide prevention difficult.
“We act like we know everything there is to know about suicide prevention,” she said. “We’ve done a great job developing solutions to part of the problem, but we don’t really know enough.”
She said that, for example, when her 19-year-old brother, Raj, died by suicide in March 2020, some people blamed her for his death because they felt her training should have made her able to see the signs.
The government’s latest strategy, the Federal Action Plan, involves more than 200 actions to be carried out over the next three years to reduce suicide rates and treat those most at risk.
These actions include sending professionals to find patients when they call the 988 crisis hotline and preventing suicides related to substance abuse.
Additionally, the plan calls for increased suicide education in schools, as well as in rural youth programs such as 4-H.
Older strategies included plans for follow-up mental health care for those who had attempted or decided not to commit suicide, such as telehealth for therapy and access to medications.
But despite these measures, suicide continues to rise in the United States. In 2022, 49,500 adults died by suicide, an all-time high.
The data, the latest available from the CDC, also suggest that suicides are more common in the United States than at any time since World War II.
Also in 2022, suicide deaths increased by three percent compared to the previous year, according to provisional data.
In 2021, there were 48,200 deaths by suicide, or one every 11 minutes.
Rates have been particularly grim in rural states like Alaska, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, with up to twice as many deaths compared to more urban areas.
CDC data shows that between 2000 and 2020, suicide rates increased 46 percent in nonmetropolitan areas compared to 27 percent in metropolitan areas.
The line graph above shows increases in suicides by age group, according to the CDC’s latest figures for 2022.
Experts have pointed out that this could be due to higher poverty rates and a lack of therapists and other behavioral health professionals in these areas of the country.
Kim Deti, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Health, told KFF Health News that while strategies like sending in crisis experts are promising, they won’t be as effective in high-risk states like Wyoming.
“The work does not stop, but some strategies that make sense in some geographic areas of the country may not make sense for a state with our characteristics,” he said.
Moreover, not all states have simplified these measures. For example, one county may have a 24-hour mental health hotline, while the neighboring county operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And some states may deploy law enforcement instead of mental health workers, which could intimidate patients.
A survey of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos It was also found that only one in four Americans is familiar with the 988 crisis line.
