Suicide becoming an Epidemic with Rural Areas most at Risk

While the highly publicized deaths of celebrities have shocked America in recent weeks, it is rural areas that are suffering the most, said researcher Jagdish Khubchandani, a health education researcher at Ball State University.  In his recently published study, “Rural Mental Health Professionals’ Perspectives on Workforce Issues” Khubchandani found that 95 percent of mental health professionals in rural communities who were surveyed reported that they are not able to meet the mental health needs of people in their communities, while 90 percent said was difficult to recruit and retain qualified professionals.  The study found the main reasons why rural counties were not able to hire qualified mental health professionals were an inability to pay competitive wages or to provide professional development opportunities. The majority of the responding mental health professionals also reported that mental health issues in their communities are not well researched and known, nor was there an accurate assessment of the number of mentally ill in their area of practice.  “Suicide rates are an indicator of social and emotional wellness of a society, which is probably at its lowest point in relation to health and wellness of people”, Khubchandani said. “Suicide is now a leading cause of death in Americans, with firearms being implicated in a majority of cases of suicide.” According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly 45, 000 Americans lost their lost their life to suicide in 2016. The CDC suggests that majority of those who died of suicide in 2016, did not have a known mental illness.  “That is why the problem is more complicated, especially in rural areas of the nation,” Khubchandani said. “Not all the individuals who commit suicide lived long enough to be diagnosed with a mental illness or showed clear signs of distress to people around them. Increasing loneliness, relationship issues and high rates of divorce, rising rates of substance and opioid use, increase in chronic disease prevalence, poor general health/physical health issues/disability, and financial and legal issues all contribute to rising suicide rates in the United States.”  Khubchandani believes that suicide prevention should be a national priority with engagement of schools, worksites, faith based organizations, communities, and individuals. Healthcare professionals also have a key role in addressing the issue of mental illnesses. “Our elected officials should look at improving mental health infrastructure and resources, particularly in the remote and rural areas,” he said. “In rural small communities, suicide is a major issue. In our recent study, we found that there is a severe shortage of mental health professionals and more dysfunctional communities in rural America. Majority of the rural mental health professionals reported that there were more than 10 suicidal deaths and more than three dozen suicide attempts reported in their counties within the past two years. This problem is compounded with major drug use issues.”