Addressing Suicide in Montana
We were both teenagers when my cousin, Steve, decided to end his life, sending the family down a dark and painful path. Devastating his family was not his intention, of course. Steve – like too many others – simply did not understand another way to stop his anguish.
Montana has high rates of suicide, especially among teenagers. The reasons for this are complex, and include lack of access to mental health care, an attitude of rugged individualism, and easy access to firearms, which are a particularly lethal method of suicide.
Organizations, communities, professionals, and family members are among those working together across Montana to prevent suicide. The University of Montana and Montana State University, for example, both having federally funded projects underway to increase the mental health workforce in rural Montana. School districts in Montana are training teachers and staff to be better recognize and respond to mental health crises in students.
Stigma associated with help-seeking in Montana contributes to our high rates of suicide. We can all play a role in eliminating this stigma. Asking for – and receiving — mental health care needs to be as acceptable as seeking medical care for a physical problem. A “tough it out alone” attitude is not what people need when experiencing emotional suffering.
Bereaved families are also impacted by the stigma around suicide. Suicide has too often been viewed as something shameful, and a reflection that the family did something wrong that caused the suicide. This is not accurate or fair, and it compounds a family’s grief.
I worked with Missoula educator and parent, Amanda Maughan, to create a podcast that addresses suicide myths and stigma; Amanda’s teenage son, Harrison, died by suicide in November 2015. Through conversations and stories, listeners of the Love Lived Here podcast are invited to better understand suicide and grief, and offered ideas and support for navigating their own loss and grief journeys – past, present, and future.
We can all be part of preventing suicide in Montana.
Dr. Mary-Ann Sontag Bowman, a faculty member in the School of Social Work at the University of Montana, holds a Ph.D. and an MSW from the University of California at Berkeley; she is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Mary-Ann has worked in end-of-life care and grief for over two decades.
