Within Our Walls: September 12, 2022

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Several Carrington entities came together to organize Carrington’s first ever Walk to Fight Suicide on Sunday, September 11. Our community and surrounding communities have been impacted too much by suicide and its ripple effects. Our goal is to bring awareness of the prevalence of suicide, and how we can all help to prevent it.

I want to share with you some statistics regarding suicide just to exhibit how big of a problem this really is. Did you know that there are approximately 130 deaths by suicide daily? A recent article I read stated that this equates to 1 death every 11 minutes. Let that sink in for a few minutes. North Dakota’s suicide rate ranks 20th in the nation. It is also the 9th leading cause of death in North Dakota. According to federal guidelines, 81 percent of communities did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents in 2020.

The federal government’s National Strategy for Suicide Prevention along with North Dakota’s Suicide Prevention Plan have a goal to ensure community and clinical health care providers are trained in evidence-based suicide-specific assessments, management and delivery of effective clinical care. This goal is very important. Many times, patients experiencing a mental health crisis are unable to be transferred to an appropriate level of care trained in caring for mental health conditions. These patients are kept in local hospitals and provided with care to the best of our abilities. It is frustrating to medical professions not trained in mental health to know our patients need specialized care, and we are unable to get it for them due to the limited resources in North Dakota.

A few months back, I had the opportunity to sit in an open forum at City Hall with Congressman Kelly Armstrong. During that open forum, a brief discussion was held on the mental health crisis in North Dakota. There are not enough inpatient beds available for those needing inpatient help, and there are not enough providers to take care of the number of patients requiring help. He agreed mental health needs to be an important focus not only for North Dakota, but nationwide. We can all help bring awareness by talking to our legislators and local officials on the importance of mental health, and mental health resources. We can talk to one another about mental health and what we can do to help. We can break down the barriers and social stigma attached to mental illness. WE CAN be the change needed to support mental health and to help end death by suicide.

CHI St. Alexius Health is here to help. Our emergency room is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also employ Brittany Long who is a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She is able to assist in the treatment and assessment of mental health. Appointments with Brittany can be made by calling 701-652-2515.

If you or someone you know is suffering from mental illness, or is/has contemplated suicide, please ask for help. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day. They can be reached by calling or texting 988. They are also available to chat at 988lifeline.org.

Don’t suffer alone, please let us help you!

TEXT 988