During National Suicide Prevention Month in September and in recent decades, statistics issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collide with public perception and may be startling to many.
Gathered from the CDC’s latest Fatal Injury Report from 2022, the jarring numbers include that:
• 49,476 Americans died by suicide, an average of once every 11 minutes;
• an estimated 1.6 million suicide attempts were made;
• and firearms accounted for 54.64% of all suicides.
Even so, 94% of adults surveyed in the United States think suicide can be prevented. Searching deeper in the history of tragic loss, suicides in the United States between 2020 and 2021 increased from 45,979 to 48,183 (4.79%). Notably demonstrating racial and ethnic disparities, suicides among Native Americans and Hispanics ages 25 to 44 and Blacks ages 10 to 24 increased significantly, especially compared to the White population.
Working to empower, save lives, educate and bring hope to communities nationwide is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The volunteer health organization is devoted to advocating for public policies; raising support for and funding research; and to educating the public about mental health and suicide prevention.
Established in 1987, local AFSP chapters in 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico introduce many people to the group through their Out of the Darkness walks, such as the Greater San Francisco Bay Area chapter’s upcoming Oct. 19 event (visit bit.ly/3Xmjz8p online to register).
The Out of the Darkness Oakland Walk will start with a brief program at 6:30 a.m. in Snow Park at Harrison Street and Lakeside Drive and then circle Lake Merritt. Ellen Lafferty is on the volunteer committee for this year’s event and said in an interview that the Oakland Walk is special for multiple reasons.
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“Unlike some walks, we actually start out predawn,” Lafferty said. “People come, complete registration, and the keynote speaker sets the tone. Beginning in the dark, with the sun coming up as we circle Lake Merritt, it’s beautiful. You don’t have to join a fundraising team. You can just come walk. We’re calling it ‘a walk for the people’ because anyone can join.”
Event co-chair Annemarie Domizio said in a separate interview that embracing the communities and cultures that make Oakland a true melting pot is key to the annual event’s atmosphere.
“The community walks offer people a space for healing, hope and remembrance as we bring mental health awareness and prevention to the forefront,” Domizio said. “Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. but carries shame and stigma, so people stay silent. We must open the conversation so that people feel supported with mental health.”
For people who choose to support suicide prevention research and advocacy by joining in a community walk, forming teams or participating as individuals, those options are explained and easily arranged on the chapter’s website. The first Oakland Walk in 2009 was organized by three women friends of Oakland resident Ginny Kleker, who took her life in 2008 at age 31.
Lafferty says this year’s goal is to have 400 participants and raise $60,000. At the 30-minute opening program in Snow Park, author, coach, teacher, entrepreneur, TED Conference speaker and suicide attempt survivor JD Schramm will be the keynote speaker.
“We stretch and warm up; volunteers help people to register; people post photographs of loved ones they’ve lost to suicide; and they choose the (honor) beads they want to wear,” Lafferty says.
The optional honor beads come in 10 colors that indicate a person’s connection to suicide. Purple indicates the loss of a relative or friend, green represents personal struggles, white is worn in remembrance of and to honor the loss of a child and so on. Lafferty says the beads help people to understand another person’s experience and remind everyone they are not alone.
Lafferty, 65, said she has participated in the walks for a decade, ever since her younger brother took his life.
“He would have turned 59 this year if he was alive,” she said. “He had been depressed on-and-off and was in therapy and took medications. He had good times and bad times. If he were here, I’d want to tell him, ‘I love you.’ This is the first year I’ve really been able to talk about it, and even so I’m getting choked up.”
Shock, grief and unanswerable questions aren’t the only reasons limiting Lafferty and many other people’s conversations about suicide and mental health conditions such as depression or addiction.
“Suicide always comes with stigma, so in our culture, people don’t talk about it,” she said. “And until the last five years, mental illness was the same. Now, it has become more talked about, and I’ve noticed that since I’ve started bringing up suicide, the conversations have opened up.”
Lafferty said awareness has also grown in the general public.
“It’s been in the news and media like this (Bay Area News Group) paper and on television and social platforms online, but getting the information to certain communities is still a real concern. The numbers in Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities and among younger people are troubling.
“The overall numbers are no less shocking. But people are generally more aware. I have to tell you, in all the years I’ve done this walk, I’ve only encountered one man who was surprised by the numbers.”
Domizio said she is honored and humbled to work with other loss survivors and suicide prevention advocates — and to share her personal connection to suicide.
“In the spring of 2016 I moved from San Francisco to Chicago and lost my love to suicide a week later,” Domizio said. “I found the ‘LOSS’ support group and was introduced to AFSP though the group facilitator.
“I moved back to the Bay Area in the fall of 2017 and attended both the San Francisco and Oakland walks. I became a certified grief educator in 2022 and was trained through AFSP to lead teen grief groups.” After losing a longtime friend in 2023, Domizio said she is “more committed than ever to AFSP’s mission and opening the conversation about suicide and mental health.”
To learn more about the AFSP and its Greater San Francisco Bay Area chapter online, visit afsp.org/chapter/greater-san-francisco-bay-area.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.