This story mentions suicide. The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by dialing 988. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line via text message by sending “KY” as a text to 741-741. Both services are free and confidential.
Youth suicide took center stage at a special legislative committee hearing in Covington on Wednesday, where legislators from both the Northern Kentucky region and the rest of the state heard stories and expert advice on what to do about the phenomenon.
“The best suicide prevention happens when our communities come together,” said Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the Kentucky Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, Beck Whipple.
The committee meeting occurred as part of a special event in which Kentucky representatives and senators came to Covington to network and meet during the interim session. Testimonies were heard during a nearly three-hour hearing of the Interim Joint (i.e., consisting of both house and senate members) Committee of Health Services. Although it wasn’t the only thing on the agenda, the topic of youth suicide took up most of the hearing.
Experts from the cabinet, the Kentucky branch of Mental Health America, and the Kentucky Center for School Safety began by giving an overview of youth death by suicide in the state, as well as evidence-based methods for dealing with it.
One of the key challenges, they said, when it comes to tracking suicide is data collection: It requires researchers to pull from numerous sources, such as coroners’ offices, crisis hotlines and vital statistics agencies to get a picture of the breadth of the phenomenon.
As a result, the data is often not up to date, and experts at the hearing emphasized the need for data sharing among agencies as one strategy to address the problem.
There were 30 deaths by suicide between the ages of 8 and 17 in Kentucky in 2023 based on available data, according to the Kentucky Department of Public Health (which itself notes that its current reporting may change as more information becomes available).
Males tend to die by suicide at higher rates than females, although Northern Kentucky Health Department Director of Population Health Stephanie Vogel said that in Northern Kentucky, the rate of deaths by suicide among females was increasing.
Available data also suggested an overall increase in the rates of intentional injury deaths, as the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics puts it, across all age groups in Boone and Campbell Counties since 2020.
The most poignant testimony came from Jaimee Kelley Seitz, a Boone County resident whose daughter, Audree Heine, died by suicide in December, one of five youth deaths in Boone County since November, four of which have been confirmed to be suicides.
Following the cluster of suicides in Boone County at the end of last year, the county formed the Boone County Suicide Response Team, a cross-institutional team that works to come up with resources, tools and avenues to curb deaths by suicide in the county. Seitz herself has also worked to raise awareness and advocate for change.
Seitz said her daughter’s death came without warning. Following her death, Seitz began looking for answers and discovered, by reading Heine’s personal journals, that Heine had been drawn into online communities that idolized mass murderers, such as the Columbine shooters, and at times even encouraged violence. Seitz characterized it as a form of brainwashing.
Seitz encouraged the legislators and meeting attendees to consider new ways, besides established channels like school counselors, for kids and teens to seek help.
“There’s not always a sign…,”Seitz said, “but if a child felt comfortable enough and they felt anonymous doing it and not judged, I feel like then that would be the first step of action. Otherwise, they’re just going to keep it in, and it gets worse.”
Marcie Timmerman, Mental Health America Kentucky’s Education and Outreach Liaison, recommended several steps for communities looking to curtail or properly respond to deaths by suicide among youth:
- Consult with the youth themselves on issues affecting them. This can be done with youth-to-youth peer specialists and young adult specialists who are trained in broaching mental health topics. Generally speaking, there should be avenues where kids feel comfortable sharing what they’re going through.
- Create formalized, evidence-based procedures for schools to enact in the wake of a death by suicide. Such a plan should include places for people to go and people to call if necessary.
- Create and distribute mental health safety plans for middle and high school students, similar to stop, drop and roll safety plans for fire safety.
- Educate communities about crisis hotlines like 998 and other resources in the area. Donate and support mental health providers in the community, especially those that focus on suicide prevention, intervention and post-vention, such as NorthKey Community Care.
- Offer evidence-based trainings to community members, such as CODE RED, Mental Health First Aid, and CALM, so that they know what to do if a loved one or peer comes to them for help with their mental health or with suicidal ideation.
- Create and broadcast suicide prevention and post-vention public service announcements.
- Enshrine effective mechanisms into law when possible.
You can watch the full hearing, including testimonials from experts and Seitz, at KET’s committee hearing archives here once it’s available.
You can also check out LINK nky’s coverage of mental health generally here.