SALT LAKE CITY — In the battle against the nation’s rising suicide rates, Utah leaders and donors met Monday to announce a “historic,” multimillion-dollar campaign to change stigmas surrounding mental health in the state.
“We’ve all had a personal journey with this issue. All of us have been impacted in some way, whether it’s family members, friends, loved ones, people in our community who have been impacted by suicide,” Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said outside the state Capitol. “And so while we recognize that the government can’t solve all of our problems, there’s a critical role for government to play in this space.”
Two years ago, the Utah Department of Health released a report stating that teen suicides had increased 141% since 2011. A suicide prevention task force was then formed, Cox said. The idea for the campaign came out of that task force.
Last year, the Legislature provided $700,000 for the campaign if the public sector matched that amount in donations. Another $300,000 from the general fund was available for the campaign and did not require a match, Cox said.
Now that the money has been raised, the campaign will launch in mid-2020. It will be similar to Utah’s Parents Empowered campaign, an effort to decrease underage drinking. The entire public and private investment — more than $2 million — will fund the new campaign meant to “engage every level of our community,” Cox said.
It will include content across TV, radio, print, social media and other outlets. The campaign will mark the first time Utah has “taken on a comprehensive, large-scale, multi-platform effort of this type around the issue of suicide, one that goes beyond individual marketing efforts,” according to Cox.
Private sector donations came from Intermountain Healthcare, Greg and Julie Cook, co-founders of DoTerra, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the University of Utah, Rocky Mountain Power, Utah Shooting Sports Council, and about $25,000 from individuals making the donation through their tax returns.
“We hope this campaign will advance and modify attitudes and social norms to demonstrably reduce suffering and save lives,” Cox said.
Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, sponsor of the bill that provided state funds, called the $2 million, three-year campaign “a historic, public-private partnership to address suicide prevention. It is needed now more than ever.”
In the past three years, America has seen a three-year decline in average lifespan because of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse. He said it’s the first time the country has seen such a decline in a century, since World War I and the flu epidemic 100 years ago.
In Utah, 3,200 died by suicide in the past five years, Eliason said.
“This is equivalent to losing the entire populations of Daggett and Piute counties combined,” he said.
But as the state began focusing on suicide prevention, he said, there’s been a “leveling off of our suicide rates.”
That’s a step to seeing a potential decrease in rates, according to Eliason. In the next legislative session, lawmakers will work on other issues related to the mental health system, he said.
Last month, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute released an alarming report detailing a growing number of children and adults with depression amid a shortage of mental health providers. Discussion groups held by the institute said, among other suggestions, that the state needed to continue to address stigmas surrounding mental health issues.
Laura Summers, senior health care analyst at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said that though the campaign was in the works before the institute’s report came out, the report served as a “call to action” for many.
“I think the report that we put out was pretty stark in terms of our position and our ranking on a lot of different mental health issues. But I do believe the silver lining to all of that is just the effort that was happening, the call to action that has happened since the report, and just the continued effort that people who are really dedicated to solving this issue have, which is great,” Summers said.
She said though stigmas can take generations to change, “we’re already seeing some good progress on this. And continued targeted efforts like this one will go a long way in terms of helping that.”
Mikelle Moore, senior vice president of community health at Intermountain Healthcare, said the issue is so large that it takes an entire community to address.
“We need faith leaders and concerned businesses and schools to all work together if we’re going to make an impact and truly prevent every suicide,” Moore said.
But more than awareness will be required to truly make changes. The campaign is meant to help people take action.
“I think awareness is the first step, of understanding the warning signs or knowing that our suicide rates are high. And yet, that awareness doesn’t translate into something that makes a difference in the outcomes. I think the actions we can take are being more conscientious about looking for warning signs, locking up firearms so that someone in a crisis doesn’t have access to them, in our homes or in our friends’ homes,” she said.
Elder Craig C. Christensen, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said: “It’s a privilege for us to work closely with dedicated public servants and other faith leaders, health care professionals, business leaders, and especially listening to survivors and those suffering from depression and discouragement, all coming together to share messages of hope and to seek ways to help those who are struggling.”
He said the message from faith leaders to those who are struggling “is that they should reach out and talk with friends, a family member, a neighbor, or anyone else for that matter. There are so many who love them, and are there to serve them, to be with them, and to encourage them that they’re not alone and they’re never alone.”
The church’s donation of $150,000 to the campaign matches its previous donation to the governor’s suicide prevention fund in 2018.
Utah Shooting Sports Council Chairman Clark Aposhian said his organization got involved because “for so long, suicides have not been looked at by the gun community, especially suicides with firearms, I think mostly because we haven’t realized the numbers, the huge percentage of overall gun deaths.”
The problem rises above a “pro-gun, anti-gun” issue, according to Aposhian.
“Whereas we may differ on a lot of other gun issues and things like that, one thing we can agree on is someone in crisis, someone in turmoil, the last thing they need is access to a gun,” he said.
His group hopes to address the issue of gun deaths without legislation and government mandates, instead treating it like drunken driving.
“You take a person’s keys because you care about them, because you don’t want them to get hurt and hurt other people. It’s the same way with firearms, because we’re hoping to get that social norm changed,” he said.
More information is expected to be released about the campaign in coming months.
The Utah Department of Health offers suicide prevention help at utahsuicideprevention.org/suicide-prevention-basics. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Help is also available through the SafeUT app.
