Data: County suicide rate second-lowest in Arizona
Date: 08/21/19
Arizona Complete Health's Maria Chavoya, Yuma Regional Manager for Community Affairs
Gov. Doug Ducey spoke to reporters Tuesday about the state’s efforts to reduce the number of suicides in rural counties, where they occur at a higher rate than the state’s average.
However, information released by the Arizona Department of Health Services show Yuma County had the second-lowest suicide rate out of the 15 counties in 2017, at 9.5 per 100,000 residents.
Statewide, the suicide rate for 2016 was 17.7 per 100,000 residents, about 32 percent higher than the national average, according to the ADHS report.
Suicide rates for rural counties, on average, are higher than for urban ones like Maricopa and Pima, and the worst in 2017 was found in La Paz County at 46.2 per 100,000, on Yuma County’s northern border.
Maricopa County saw 15.2 deaths by suicide per 100,000, closer to the national average. The lowest rate was in Santa Cruz, on the Mexican border south of Tucson, at 4.3.
Ducey said several measures are being taken to make mental health care more accessible to rural areas, particularly through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program.
As of Oct. 1, AHCCCS will lift all restrictions on coverage for telemedicine on certain specialties, including behavioral health. It also will no longer require patients sit in a doctor’s office during such an appointment.
“So as technology evolves, they wouldn’t have to go into a doctor’s office. They might be able to do it from their phone or some other device,” said Christina Corieri, Ducey’s senior policy advisor.
She said Ducey has taken other steps, beginning in his first term, to expand insurance coverage for all forms of telemedicine, where a doctor sees a patient who could be hundreds of miles away in an area without enough local providers to provide services.
Ducey said, “I’m a big believer in what technology can do to help us not only prevent and avoid some of these situations, but also bring convenience and quality to our rural areas. And this is a specific issue where telemedicine can help get much-needed services to our rural areas.”
Other programs cited by Ducey and Corieri included a $20 million grant program in the current school year’s budget making funding available for additional school counselors or school resource officers on campuses.
“I want to leave it up to the school district and school to decide which is more important, or if both are important, and we want to get that money out as soon as possible,” Ducey said.
Corieri said the grant application has not been finalized yet, so she couldn’t say for certain whether it will be individual schools or school districts applying for the grants.
Another measure Ducey said he hopes will reduce the number of suicides and other violent incidents is adoption of a “red-flag” law allowing law enforcement to temporarily remove guns owned by people deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others.
Ducey’s Severe Threat Order of Protection, or “STOP order,” proposal was presented to the Legislature during this year’s session but didn’t gather enough support.
“The issues of mental health and gun violence are something Arizonans want to be proactive on, rather than reactive, and STOP orders are a tool to do that,” Ducey said.
Regarding Yuma County’s comparatively low suicide rate, Maria Chavoya, regional manager for community affairs for Arizona Complete Health (formerly Cenpatico), said it can be partly attributed to cooperation between mental health providers, first responders and her employer, which is its regional behavioral health authority.
“We come together quickly to provide support for providers and stakeholders, as partners, and we continually have meetings, even when people think we are not needing more meetings,” she said. “We meet all the time, regardless.”
The agency is also working to make sure local schools are participating in the national Mental Health First Aid program, which offers a free eight-hour course to police officers, educators and others in the community on how to spot and respond to symptoms of mental health disorders and substance use.
It is often compared to teaching nonmedical personnel how to use CPR to save lives, and Arizona Complete Health hopes to see more people certified as instructors in Yuma County, Chavoya said.
Southwest Arizona Town Hall held a one-day session in May to discuss the shortage of providers and other problems with access to behavioral health care in the county, but Chavoya points to the quality of the professionals who are available to treat depression and other forms of mental illness.
“We have these really great providers that know exactly what to do,” she said.
Anyone facing a personal crisis, or who is considering killing or harming themselves, can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255 or the Southern Arizona Crisis Line at (866) 495-6735 for help..
By Blake Herzog, @BlakeHerzog
Article on Yuma Sun