Panel urges more funding, awareness to prevent suicides

Lawmakers are grappling with how to prevent suicides, the leading cause of fatal injuries, which accounts for one person dying every two days in Hawaii.

On average there were 186 suicides a year from 2012 to 2016, compared with 120 in the early 2000s, state Department of Health statistics show. Hawaii County has the highest suicide rate at 117 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Kauai at 92 and Maui at 86. Oahu had the lowest rate at 66.

“We must fund suicide prevention in Hawaii and especially training for those on the ground,” said state Sen. Josh Green (D, Kona-Kau), chairman of the Senate Human Services Committee, who was part of a joint House and Senate briefing Friday on the state’s suicide prevention plan. “We can save dozens of lives this way. We underfund mental health care and drug treatment in Hawaii by tens of millions every year, and one direct result of this is far too many suicides. In some ways, drug and alcohol treatment and treatment for mental illness needs to become the new primary care. It’s that big a deal.”

The Prevent Suicide Hawaii Taskforce, comprising public, private and nonprofit groups, presented a plan to reduce suicides in Hawaii by at least 25 percent by 2025.

Strategies include raising awareness through the press about this preventable public health problem and tapping into social media where most teens and many adults spend their time.

“There’s a lack of awareness of the scale of the problem in the state,” said Dan Galanis, an epidemiologist at the Health Department, which receives $100,000 annually for suicide prevention programs. “Part of that plays into the stigma of losing someone to suicide and even some remaining stigma around mental illness.”

The task force is also recommending more training, particularly for first responders, educators, health care providers, corrections authorities, and support groups for survivors and others in need. The group says more research and evaluation of prevention programs, policies and systems need to be done, as well as ensuring adequate community resources.

“It’s important to raise awareness throughout the whole community in regards to the hope, help and healing that is available,” said Oahu task force Chairwoman Pua Kaninau-Santos, whose son, Kaniela, died in 2003. “If you’re that one family that just had that suicide, how desperate would that be? The faces of our loved ones, they’re just not statistics. They all had lives; they made a bad choice. We are the voices for those who have no voices.”