Students help students

Each year, roughly 17,000 people are killed in homicides, many of which receive headlines in newspapers and television spots. Nearly twice that many people, however, die without fanfare when they take their own lives.

Suicide is particularly troubling, experts say, because it leaves survivors with so many unanswered questions and emotional hurdles.

It's natural for survivors to live with feelings of guilt, anger and despair -- feelings the victims of suicide don't always think about. Locally, there is a renewed effort on many levels to curb suicide, and help heal survivors who are slammed by its aftermath.

Multifaceted approach

Teens are particularly susceptible to suicide's allure.

At Wasilla High School, that issue is being addressed in a peer-friendly way, by having a group of six students in the advanced human relations class talk to incoming freshmen in their health classes.

Personal stories are also being used to reach students -- Cindy Plano is talking to others about how her family is dealing with her son's suicide last April (see related story). Finally, suicide survivors have formed a support group, offering family members and loved ones a chance to share their feelings.

"It really has to be a multifaceted approach because it is such a complex issue," said Jeanine Sparks, a Wasilla High School guidance counselor who is also the acting chair of the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council. "Hopefully, we'll see a lot of good come out of this approach."

Alaska has alarming rate of suicide

From January 2003 through February 2004, a 13-month period, 158 Alaskans took their own lives, according to the 2004 report from the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council.

The suicide rate in Alaska is much higher than the nationwide average -- from 1994 through 2000, Alaska's suicide rate ranged from 20 to 23 per 100,000 residents, while the national average stayed between 10 and 12 per 100,000 residents.

Because of the state's enormousness, looking at specific regions can be more of an indicator of at-risk groups.

In its 2004 report to the state Legislature, the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council broke down Alaska's suicides from 1993 to 2002. As a whole, the suicide rate was 21.3 per 100,000 residents, but a closer examination showed rates in some regions as low as 13.0 to as high as 76.8 per 100,000.

The Valley is enveloped with Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which is obviously the largest region in terms of population.

There were 591 suicides from our region in that nine-year period, but the incident rate was 17.5, well below the statewide average. In the Northwest Arctic Borough and Nome areas, however, the suicide rate reached above 76.

In almost all cases, Bush communities are far more affected by suicide than larger population areas. The Fairbanks area, however, had a rate higher than the statewide average (25.5) while the Kodiak region had the state's lowest incident rate, at 11.3.

In Alaska, young people are even more prone to suicide than other age groups. From September 2003 through February 2004, 33 people under the age of 29 committed suicide, while 41 people in all other age groups combined committed suicide.

Suicide is obviously a statewide problem, particularly with young people. That's exactly why the Wasilla High School advanced human relations class has taken to the road to promote the Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) program.

QPR

In teacher Deb Haynes' advanced human relations class, you'll find six students who are working together to make a difference.

While suicide prevention isn't their only concern, the students -- Kaila Korsmo, Melanie Neher, Jake Wade, James "Biggie" Wooden, Michelle Hammond and Megan Metcalf -- agree that suicide is one of the biggest issues facing their age group.

The group also presents programs on topics such as AIDS awareness, but they all have received training in the QPR program as well.

"Teen suicide is a huge problem," Wade said. "But having presented QPR a few times now, I think I can see clues and warning signs in people. Hopefully, we get other students to see those signs."

The program has been presented in schools around the Valley, in Anchorage and even in Barrow. Every ninth-grade class at Wasilla High School will go through the program, and Haynes is working to get the program in the middle schools.

The program isn't a peer helper-type program. The QPR students are trained to see warning signs, give other students the ability to see those warning signs and then refer at-risk students to the proper people. They aren't part of an intervention team, but instead are simply trying to let others know there is help out there if they need it.

"It isn't always the kid who is sad and depressed and not talking to anyone," Wooden said. "It can be the person who is talking to everybody they see."

By using students to talk to other students, Haynes hopes it will have more of an impact.

"I could be standing on my head in front of the room, spinning around and talking, and I get tuned out because I'm a teacher," Haynes said. "But the kids, they were glued on these guys (the QPR presenters) because they were peers. They don't zone them out like they do when a teacher talks."

So why are young Alaskans killing themselves?

Some of the students in the QPR program said there are environmental reasons.

"It's dark all the time, and that can lead to some depression in a lot of people, not just students," Korsmo said.

Ultimately, though, it is the springtime when many suicides happen.

"People think they are depressed because it's dark out, and that they'll pull out of the funk when it's springtime," Haynes said. "But when spring comes and they are still feeling depressed, they think about suicide."

Outside influences

Often, alcohol and drugs are part of the mix when a person is thinking about suicide.

"They are not the cause of suicide, but they certainly lead up to it," Haynes said.

Having peers who are able to detect warning signs, such as alcohol and drug use, is vital for preventing behavior that ultimately leads to suicide.

"We are trying to show kids how they can spot the warning signs out in everyday situations, and spread the word about what they can do to help," Wade said.

"The advanced human relations class is more about others than it is about yourself," Neher said. "It's about teaching other people what to look for and how to help."

Not all the warning signs are evident, however. And that's why suicide is such a complex issue.

"Sometimes when I'm walking down the hall and I see a kid being bullied, it does enter the back of my mind whether or not he's thinking about suicide," Wooden said. "Some of those outside things you can't control, but you can see them working on someone."

The future

Suicide isn't an issue that's just going to go away, and everybody realizes that. But by using a multifaceted approach, including the support group, student presentations and personal stories, local officials hope to see suicide numbers decline.

"It isn't something that you can just look at the numbers for the last month or the last two months or the last three months and say, 'Yes, this is working,'" Sparks said. "You have to look at this over a long period of time."

Plano said it's hard to tell how many students have benefited from her presentation, but she believes she is making a difference, along with the QPR program.

"It's a little frustrating because you don't know who you've helped, because there isn't concrete numbers to look at," Plano said. "But I think we are going to make a difference. I believe that."