Editor’s note: This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Local crisis services can be reached at 757-656-7755.
The number of deaths by suicide has slowly increased in Virginia over the last two decades.
Nearly 1,250 people died from suicide across the commonwealth in 2023, the most recent year for which data was available, according to the Virginia Department of Health. It was a more than 3% increase over the previous year, and follows a rising trend across the commonwealth dating back to 1999.
Mental health specialists at the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board have expanded services in recent years to increase outreach to individuals at risk for suicide.
Seantelle Hill leads the Hampton-Newport News Community Service Board’s Suicide Prevention Task Force. She said the task force provides educational programs like communication training and warning sign identification to community members to raise awareness of suicide risks and warning signs.
“It’s a combination of trying to reduce some of the stigma that surrounds suicide, being able to recognize signs and symptoms and leading people toward resources where they can get help,” Hill said.
Those warning signs can include behavioral changes such as suddenly becoming disengaged, mental health struggles or giving belongings away, according to CSB Prevention Services Manager Nikki Bacilio-High.
Newport News has one of the highest suicide rates in the state, at 19 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to the state health department. The number of suicides reported in the city increased by more than 50% in recent years, from 23 deaths in 2018 to 35 deaths in 2023.
In Hampton, 17 people died by suicide in 2023 and the city’s suicide rate is markedly lower at 12 deaths per 100,000 residents. Virginia’s suicide rate is 14 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Bacilio-High said CSB’s prevention programs are increasing awareness of prevention strategies.
“Even if we can reach one person that has learned something new about how to recognize, how to connect an individual to resources, how to ask that question about if that individual is thinking about suicide, I think those are some of the things that we can call success,” Bacilio-High said.
The Hampton-Newport News CSB has also worked in recent years to expand it’s mobile crisis response capabilities.
Connie Vatsa began as the Hampton-Newport News CSB mobile crisis response coordinator in 2022, roughly a year after the city created its Community Assistance Response program to deploy mental health professionals to respond to calls for nonviolent crises. Since then, she said there have been several improvements to response efforts to reach more people across the Peninsula.
“We went from pretty much no mobile crisis response in the community prior to Newport News CARE to having multiple layers and entities doing mobile crisis response at this point and having pretty significant coverage,” Vatsa said.
Once the CARE program was up and running, the CSB provided clinicians to collaborate with the Newport News Fire Department, according to Vatsa, which has since grown to include to include three response teams consisting of clinicians brought on by both the CSB and the fire department.
Vatsa added the Virginia’s rollout of 988, a national suicide prevention hotline, in 2022 came as localities worked to establish a Marcus Alert system database, prompting Hampton and Newport News to make additional investments into crisis response.
The CSB added a Marcus Alert team that year to co-respond with law enforcement on the Peninsula to mental health crises with training from the regional call center, Vatsa said. That has since expanded to add more hours of availability and staff to help act as a second crisis response resource in addition to the CARE teams Hampton and Newport News have each established.
More people on the Peninsula have been using services like 988 over the past couple of years, Vatsa said, and crisis response teams have ramped up crisis intervention, especially among those experiencing homelessness or those with developmental disorders. However, she said intervention can only go so far in addressing suicide, and prevention starts before a crisis team is ever called.
“We are only able to solve crises in so much as there are available services and resources to address the underlying issues and needs,” Vatsa said. “The best way to solve a crisis is to make sure that it never becomes a crisis in the first place.”
Nearly 10% of adolescents across the country have serious thoughts of suicide per year, and 5% of adults have serious thoughts of suicide each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health.
Moving forward, Bacilio-High said, CSB wants to continue expanding educational opportunities to make suicide prevention resources as widely known as possible.
“If we can just increase the amount of training that we have, the amount of public forums where we can train and bring more awareness to the community, I think that will be the right direction for us,” Benicio-High said.
The CSB is helping organize an Out of the Darkness walk Oct. 11 in Newport News Park to raise awareness about mental health issues and honor those who have died by suicide. For more information, visit: afspwalks.donordrive.com/VAPeninsula
Devlin Epding, 757-510-4037, devlin.epding@virginiamedia.com