The study, released by Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health, found that from 2008 to 2017, Ohio suicides increased by 24 percent. Overall, 15,246 people killed themselves, accounting for a little more than 1 percent of deaths statewide. In Cuyahoga County alone there were 1,461 suicides in that time frame.
Orman Hall, the study’s author, told the Akron Beacon Journal that by breaking down the report by demographics and geography, limited state resources to those found to be most at risk.
According to the study, those most at risk are males, especially those between the ages of 50-59. In the final year of the study, 2017, the highest risk was found among those in their 20s.
These numbers build on another report from last year, where the Center for Disease Control found that in 2015, 20 percent of Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school students had attempted to take their own lives.
Only two Northeast Ohio counties are included in the Top 10 counties most affected, and the rest appear in the Appalachian region of the state:
1. Meigs
2. Jackson
3. Hocking
4. Adams
5. Ashtabula
6. Gallia
7. Brown
8. Guernsey
9. Trumbull
10. Muskingum
Statewide, guns account for more than 50 percent of all suicides. Find the full report right here.
The Cuyahoga County Suicide Prevention, Mental Health Crisis, Information and Referral Hotline can be reached anytime at 216-623-6888.
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This article appears in May 8-14, 2019.
We are dying of despair while the Republicans sit back and do nothing.
Not a lot of good jobs in Southeast Ahia…and if you’re a blue-collar male in your fifties and unemployed, your chances of being hired are almost zilch…anywhere in this state. No work, no money, no hope…so you figure you’re better off dead than alive. And so you pick up your gun and eat it. Misery over. Game over.
But for your friends and family, the misery has just begun. I’m shocked and saddened to hear these awful stats…but am I one bit surprised? HELL, NO!
Now as for why twentysomethings do it, when they have so much time ahead of them…maybe some shrink can answer that one. I ain’t no shrink.
Depression, addiction, all those years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift, getting dumped by your squeeze…who the hell knows? Different reason for each sad case. Usually a permament solution to a temporary problem. But late-middle aged and out of work…that’s not temporary. No indeed.
Ohio leads the nation in so many things…anti-abortion laws, opioid addiction, puppy mills, and pretty soon offing yourself can probably be added to that list. Beautiful Ohio, my ass.
It used to be Beautiful Ohio. Not anymore.
Mother Nature created a beautiful place.
Ohioans…those who live here and those who own it and those who run it…have made it ugly.