Posted on 09/05/2006 6:30:01 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Group plans walk to raise awareness of suicide By The Associated Press
CASPER - A Natrona County group plans a walk this month to raise awareness of Wyoming's extraordinary suicide rate.
The Natrona County Task Force for Suicide Prevention says the rate in Wyoming is about 22 suicides per 100,000 people, nearly twice the national average. Since 1999, more than 100 suicides have occurred in Natrona County alone.
Raising awareness of the problem may encourage people to become involved in preventing suicides, members of the task force say. "It's not just to make sure people know it is a problem," said Linda Nelson, chairwoman of the task force. "But it's to make sure people know they can make a different in someone else's life. We want to remove the stigma of mental illness."
The group is sponsoring its second "Morning Has Broken" walk this month. Last year, about 250 people participated. The walk is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sept. 17, beginning at Crossroads park in Casper. Musicians will perform along the way and a pancake breakfast is planned at the end of the four-mile walk.
"We have to do something every year," Nelson said. "If we let our guard down, it could be tragic. There is nothing worse than getting a call Sunday night from school saying we will have to do some intense grief counseling because some kid committed suicide over the weekend."
Jean Davies, a member of the task force, said she believes the suicide rate in Wyoming is high because access to firearms is easy, substance abuse problems are high and people are isolated.
Davies, whose nephew committed suicide two years ago, said the task force has been unable to find a single, overriding factor in Wyoming suicides.
Last modified on 9/5/2006 at 12:37 am
oh oh..its the guns fault....oh thats right..my sister killed herself with drugs...blame it on the object..not the brain
Although tragic....It's still a choice. You can talk and listen but in the end it's nobodies fault but the person who decides to end it all.
http://www.theforeigner-japan.com/archives/200304/news.htm
The suicide rate in Japan is about 26/100,000, no doubt fueled by how easy it is to get firearms there compared to Wyoming.
Its the wind. I know as I grew up in Casper.
Isn't there a novel about how "The Wind" caused a woman, probably in Texas, to go insane?
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