Suicide

The rate of suicides involving a firearm are increasing nationwide, according to a new report. Indigenous people are seeing the largest increase.

In recent years Montana has seen one of the largest increases in suicides nationwide.

The grant comes after state lawmakers voted down a bill that would have offered the program to all middle and high schools and provide additional case management services for kids identified during screening.

Lawmakers in the House Monday once again voted down a bill that would fund an ongoing pilot program that screens middle and high schoolers for suicide risk. Lawmakers last week revived the bill after it failed on a nearly split vote.

Montana Veterans Affairs (VA) officials say all veterans with and without benefits can now get free emergency mental health care at any medical facility, including non-VA facilities. They can also receive residential and outpatient crisis services. The new rule aims to reduce suicide among Montana veterans.

Montana lawmakers Monday narrowly voted down a bill that would have funded suicide screening for middle and high school students.

While the national suicide rate among veterans is declining, a recent study found that the suicide rate in eight states, including Montana, may be more than double what the VA is reporting.

A bipartisan U.S. Senate agreement negotiated after high-profile mass shootings in Texas, New York, and Oklahoma lacks gun access restrictions that advocates say are needed to prevent such attacks. But the deal’s focus on mental health has raised hopes — and doubts — that it will help reduce gun suicides, particularly in rural Western states with wide-open gun laws.

Tribal officials and various mental health advocates have been trying to find an alternative for nearly a decade. But the Fort Peck reservation is still badly lacking in both secure psychiatric facilities and qualified mental health workers.

A 15-year-old patient died by suicide earlier this year while under the care of Shodair Children’s Hospital in Helena. A state health department report released to Montana Free Press outlines insufficient staffing and inadequate monitoring in the hospital’s residential psychiatric unit may have contributed to the child’s death in May.