Sad subject during any season - Suicide: a Montana point of view

"A group of local mental health advocates is urging state lawmakers to establish a statewide strategy for behavioral health services."

Mental health often a victim of budgets- Rapid City Journal

Echo opinion: Montana has the highest suicide rate in the nation.

Full stop.

In 2016 — the most recent year for which numbers are available — 26 of every 100,000 Montanans took their own lives. That's five times the suicide rate in the District of Columbia (5.1) and more than three time rates in New Jersey (7.2) and New York (8.1).

One in 10 of Montanans is a veteran — one of the three highest per capita rates in the nation. And there's a connection between these numbers. Nationally, 30 of every 100,000 veterans commit suicide each year — more than twice the general population rate of 14.

A group of local mental health advocates is urging state lawmakers to establish a statewide strategy for behavioral health services.

And those lawmakers need to listen.

Access to behavioral health services in this state has been very uneven geographically. Some larger cities offer more in the way of these services than others and much more than what's available in rural areas. And Bozeman and Gallatin County have historically been lacking. The Gallatin County sheriff says his deputies spend 700 hours a year driving emotionally distressed individuals to the state hospital at Warm Springs, cutting them off from lifelines of friends and family.

Adding to the problem is that when legislators go looking for ways to cut spending, these services are among the first items on chopping block.

When budget cuts were triggered by revenue shortfalls last year, Gallatin County lost all six of its behavioral health case workers and the only facility in Livingston was forced to close its doors. Cuts like those meant that many who were suffering from depression and other emotional issues were left without care. 

And, as the numbers indicate, that can be deadly.

Legislators of every stripe should find the state of these services very troubling. Establishing a statewide strategy for making behavioral health services more accessible and funding more stable is a moral obligation they must not ignore. Spreading these services more evenly around the state and providing stable funding for them should be a minimum.

Victims of emotional distress often go wanting for strong advocacy. They can be wrongly regarded as weak and victims of their own poor judgment. That has to stop. The stigma of emotional distress must be lifted and services must be enhanced.

Otherwise the troubling numbers are only going to get worse.