06/26/2022
This is my work, along with the rest of the Research and Planning team and the remarkable Communications team . We couldnāt have produced a report like this without the Mesa County Su***de Prevention Coalition, and community allies like the Mesa County Coronerās Office, and St Maryās Hospital.
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I pulled out a few charts I think are interesting and worth noting if you donāt have time to look at the whole thing. The first compares the su***de rate over time for Mesa County, Colorado, and the US. As you can see, our rate is fairly consistently higher than Colorado in general, which is higher the US. This is one of the reasons Su***de prevention is a public health priority.
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The next slide shows something I felt as a relief when I first charted it. Youth hospital visits for attempt are DOWN since 2020. They are still high, and itās important to note that they are higher than 2019. But the very large number we saw in 2020 has fallen to be more in line with the trend we were seeing in 2018-2019. Itās possible that this is actually just a number that fluctuates a lot, but itās also possible that 2020 will remain an outlier. We may have programs like to thank for this, and obviously it matters that worked hard to provide in person learning for the vast majority of students in 2021.
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The third chart shows the progress of the VAās gun lock project, which provides free gun locks to people who purchase a gun from a participating gun shop or pawn shop. Access to a fi***rm is an impactful risk factor for su***de, and I love that in this community where guns are so highly valued, gun vendors are willing to be partners in su***de prevention. Itās much more effective than say, if we handed them out at public health. In the future, Iām curious if we have data about the total number of fi***rms purchased. Iād love to see that as a percentage of gun sales - it would probably be useful for expanding the program or informing research on how to address this particular type of su***de risk.
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Any questions?
