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Nine local organizations gathered at Marshall’s Brooks Memorial Fountain to support United Steps efforts educating others about suicide awareness during Suicide Prevention Month.
By Sylvia Benavidez
Calhoun County suicide rates continue to be higher than both the Michigan and U.S. averages according to the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Calhoun County.
Local groups raised suicide awareness through education and personal contact in downtown Marshall on Sept. 10, World Suicide Prevention Day. Nine organizations from the Veterans Administration to 911 operators to Summit Pointe were located at the Brooks Memorial Fountain Day at the Step Out of the Darkness Luminary Event.
“Calhoun County is seeing significant higher suicide rates in our state average as well as our national average. So, they have been higher,” said Scott Teichner, suicide prevention facilitator for Summit Pointe and the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Calhoun County, one of the partners of the event.
There is slight variation up and down, but the suicide rate continues to hold steady over the last several years. “The last data we do have had begun to look like a downward trend. But when you look at it, Calhoun County has a smaller population, so you see a lot more variability year-to-year. The most important thing I can say is that on average year-to-year, we lose somewhere around 20 community members each year. So that’s the most important thing really, if we lose one, that’s one too many. Our goal is to bring that number down,” said Teichner.
In an interview, Albion Department of Public Safety Chief Aaron Phipps agreed there is a lot of variability in even recording suicide numbers and mental health issues in general. “These situations are so circumstantial. It’s hard to specifically say someone tried to take their life versus someone who made the comment because they are seeking help,” he said. In the last nine years, he reported that they have had at least 10 suicides.
Phipps said that they have many more calls requiring mental petitions. This is when officers physically take someone to an emergency room for a mental health screening and fill out a mental health evaluation. He said, “We had 25 mental petitions in 2024 that averaged about two per month. So, for this year, we’ve already had 22. So, we’re probably going to have more than two a month for this year as an average.” Seeing people’s mental health concerns go untreated worries him the most.
There are risk factors that can be recognized but there is also a degree of unpredictability when trying to record actual suicide numbers. In 2021, a man shot himself in the head in front of an ADPS officer after being pulled over for speeding. “I don’t know what he was thinking. There was nothing out there, no serious warrants. He had committed no crime. He just decided to take his own life. Trying to categorize that is nearly impossible,” said Phipps.
“What concerns me most is the people closest to these people not recognizing it or ignoring it. That is what is concerning to me.” Phipps described another suicide from 2023. “We had contact with this individual for decades and ultimately substance abuse got the best of him, and he shot himself in the head.”
Phipp’s officers are trained to recognize risks, and he encourages those who are thinking about suicide or suspect someone in their life is suicidal to get help from community resources or call 911 to speak with an officer. He said, “We’ve seen the threshold for suicide. I know what that looks like very well. Marriage issues, money issues, substance abuse issues a lot of times have involvement in the suicides that we see, and there are times where we have calls for service a half dozen times with an individual and there were times where we had zero and we never knew that there was an issue until that person has already taken their life, but through the investigation we found out that this person was experiencing a, b, and c.”
Breck Searle, president of United Steps, a non-profit for suicide awareness and prevention, was the originator of the Step Out of the Darkness Luminary Event. He is working toward getting those numbers down and educating communities. He said the fountain is an ideal place for fulfilling their organization’s mission – “Raising awareness and providing resources for those who have lost someone to suicide. Letting them know that there are people out there who can help them and try to prevent suicide simply by education.”
Searle wants people to get rid of their fears about getting help. “It’s the stigma and fear of judgement. Will I lose my children. Will I get fired? None of those are the case. You are protected in the State of Michigan,” he said.
All three men interviewed agreed getting educated on how to offer proper help is vital to getting someone to care safely. “Some people feel that talking about suicide will promote it or enhance the thoughts and that’s just simply not the case,” said Searle. “Studies have proven that actually talking about it helps to reduce because it gives that person comfort level to know that if they are hurting, they have resources they can come to that will not judge them and be understanding.”
Teichner is hearing more people talk about their lives being touched by suicide. “I do suicide prevention trainings throughout the county, and I always ask the question ‘who has been impacted by suicide?’ It’s usually at least half of the group,” he said.
Searle shared if an individual doesn’t know what to do, call 911. “We don’t have to save their life. We have to help them save their own.”
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, once known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, is a national 24/7 toll-free hotline funded and operated by than 200 local call centers around the country.
Locally United Steps offers support and education (269) 967-7447; and First Step Psychiatric Urgent Care Center 24 Hour Crisis Hotline is 1-800-632-5449.
