Panel members focus on suicide prevention

Delphi Packard workers might be added to the
at-risk population as their benefits run out.

WARREN — The number of suicides in Trumbull County rose from 24 in 2004 to 38 last year, and is at 30 already this year.

These statistics are among the reasons that the county’s Suicide Prevention Coalition decided to begin meeting again, even though grant money is no longer available to fund the committee.

It last met regularly from 2002 through 2005. It used money from a $10,000 state grant at the time.

About eight social service providers met at the Trumbull LifeLines building on Youngstown Road to devise new strategies for helping the population most at risk for suicide.

Dr. Humprey Germaniuk, the county’s forensic pathologist, told the group that individuals most at risk for suicide appear to be men between ages 18 and 25, and the elderly.

Young men seem to be most at risk for suicide when they lack job skills and education and abuse drugs and alcohol. Very often they have a child or two and get into a dispute with their girlfriend or wife, Dr. Germaniuk said.

The committee agreed that one of its most important tasks will be to find ways to reach the 18- to 25-year old men because they are no longer part of the educational system, nor do they generally seek help from social services agencies.

When it’s bad

John E. Myers Jr., director of evaluation and quality improvement for LifeLines, noted that suicide rates in the area may continue to rise as people taking buyouts at Delphi Packard finally run out of benefits. Studies have indicated that their most at-risk period comes at that point, rather than just after separation from their job, he said.

Jan Leskovec, director of adult services for Valley Counseling Services Inc., noted it is common for her to learn of suicides involving people who have never come to Valley Counseling for help.

Among the agencies that do encounter such people are police and firefighters and workers from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, she noted.

Dr. Germaniuk recalled that advertisements have been aired on radio in the past that have helped to demystify mental illness and depression, so that at-risk individuals might seek help. He suggested that airing the advertisements on popular radio stations might get the message to the people who need it.

The Rev. Trish Mikulan, program coordinator for Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital psychiatric services and clinical administrator for Warren Family Mission, said she would help the group apply for grants that might provide the money to begin airing such public service announcements again.

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