In one of the darkest tallies of the nation's still-sputtering recession, experts say financial desperation has played a significant role in increased calls to suicide-prevention hot lines -- and likely has led to increased suicide rates.
While government statistics on suicides often lag by two or three years, experts say the easier-to-track calls to hot lines have grown significantly. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which operates 24-hour crisis help lines around the country, reported an increase of 18 percent from January to May this year. The rates have fluctuated wildly, from 13,424 in January 2007 to a peak of 59,500 two months ago.
Dr. John Draper, director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, said it's hard to tell whether the increased pace reflects more people needing help, or whether it's the effects of media attention on the problem and increased outreach by crisis counselors.
But Draper has no doubt the need is there. Federal mental health programs funneled an extra $1 million to the Lifeline last year to increase outreach in 20 programs targeting heavily stressed places, such as Michigan. And past studies, Draper said, have shown a correlation between unemployment rates and suicide rates.
"There is no reason to believe this would be different," he said. "There is very appropriate concern at the federal level. While we don't have the data yet, we're not waiting."
There are indicators the U.S. suicide rate has climbed. An informal tally of 19 states by the Wall Street Journal in November found an increase of 2.3 percent in the 2008 suicide rate over the 2007 rate. Other news outlets around the nation have recently reported a troubling flow of suicides and murder-suicides by people facing crippling financial troubles, including:
* An armed man facing foreclosure in Chattanooga, Tenn., who called police early July 1 threatening suicide. Authorities said that after officers arrived, the man talked with them from the porch of his house and then burst down the steps waving his gun while screaming, "Suicide by cop!" He died in a hail of bullets.
* A husband in Santa Ana, Calif., who called police later that same day to say he had shot his wife while she slept and then overdosed on Valium in a murder-suicide pact the morning they were to be evicted from their apartment. He survived and has been charged with murder.
* A husband and father in Anaheim, Calif., facing foreclosure and a mountain of credit card debt, last month shot and killed his wife, critically wounded their 3-year-old son, shot at but missed their 5-year-old son and then killed himself, police said. More...
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