A new initiative has begun in Greene County to curb suicides altogether.

The Greene County Suicide Prevention Coalition held its inaugural meeting Wednesday. Representatives from at least seven local organizations attended to learn about suicide and work towards goals that will fulfill the group’s vision statement of eliminating suicides in Greene County.

It was mentioned that Greene County averages five or less deaths by suicide per year. Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in Iowa, and it’s the tenth cause of death nationally. Suicide Prevention and Outreach Specialist with Veterans Affairs Lori Reynolds and the University of Pittsburgh Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) Ali Burrell led the meeting. Burrell said the PERU program includes a community awareness questionnaire, which includes responses from Iowa. She said 279 of the 1,800 responses were from central Iowa and only ten-percent of the 279 responses stated they knew about any of the resources to prevent suicides.

As for the Iowa Suicide Survey, it was mentioned that over 160,000 suicide deaths occured in 2016. The most common method for veterans and the general public was firearms and the most common age group was 35-54-year-olds. 

Greene County Veterans Affairs Director Michael Bierl believes the coalition will strive to get information out to community members and provide services for those in need. He adds, this will also help him with local veterans.

“I have visited with a few folks that they had thoughts (of suicide). So the need is out there and if we can save anyone (and) if we can save anyone who even has a thought about it, that’s a major (benefit) as well.”  

Reynolds primarily works with veterans through the Des Moines office, but she is reaching out to all community with these coalitions to prevent suicides. She describes why she came to Greene County.

“Greene County already does beautiful things where they work together on resources, and projects, and all kinds of opportunities for the folks that live in Greene County. And so it was an easy transition to come here and bring suicide prevention coalition work here because it’s already formed in a lot of ways. You guys are already doing great things towards suicide prevention. This is just a way for us to make sure the community knows all the beautiful work you’re doing.” 

The group wants to improve resources for preventing suicides, increase community awareness and education, fighting the stigma that suicides are associated with, which ultimately the group hopes will eliminate suicides in the county.