By all accounts, January was a bad month for Secaucus. On Jan. 8, a 61-year-old man committed suicide. His death was followed in short succession by two more – on Jan . 14 and 19 – by a 24-year-old man and a 19-year-old.
Nine people in this town of only 16,264 people have committed suicide since January 2008, with at least seven other people attempting suicide in the same period, according to the Secaucus Police Department. For a community that prides itself on its small town, “everybody knows everybody” appeal, these deaths have been unsettling.
“The goal is for people to get better.” – Paula Clayton
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Both of those programs were initiated after the August 2010 suicide of a 19-year-old resident.
New Jersey has the lowest suicide rate of any state in the nation, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, at 6.9 people per population of 100,000 per year. Thus, Secaucus’ rate is above the state average.
Task force created
The town is now poised to redouble its efforts. At the recommendation of mental health leaders with the Hudson County Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth, known as TLC, Secaucus is pulling together a task force that will be comprised of more than 15 members of the community. The goal of the task force will be to raise awareness of mental health and available community resources for residents who may be in crisis.
Representatives from local psychiatric screening centers and Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, school principals, parents, the police chief, and the county mental health administrator are among the people who are being asked to join this group.
Although the idea of the task force originated with mental health providers affiliated with the youth-oriented TLC, Mayor Michael Gonnelli said last week the group will have a broader focus.
“It’s not just going to focus on teens and young adults. This is something that is going to focus on everybody in the community because, as we’ve seen, this is obviously a problem that isn’t just affecting kids in high school or teenagers,” he said.
Is this a cluster?
While these deaths do not meet the strict definition of what are called “suicide clusters,” mental health experts who were interviewed last week agreed that these numbers are alarming.
“In the strictest sense, this is not a cluster, but the community is right to respond the way that it has and should be vigilant and aggressive in how it educates residents,” said Dr. Paula Clayton, a psychiatrist and medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). “The community should respond as if this were a cluster.”
Typically, suicide clusters are defined as three or more suicides in a specific location that take place over a short period of time, and often the people involved knew one another.
“They take place in a community or among a subset of the community,” said Wylie Tene, public relations manager of the AFSP. “But they are usually of the same age group. Usually there is some type of copying or contagion aspect to it. And they’ll usually use the same type of method.”
By way of example, Tene pointed to a string of suicides in Palo Alto, Calif. In 2009, at least four teens who attended Gunn High School all killed themselves by jumping in front of trains.
“It’s more common to have a contagion aspect among teens and young adults,” said Tene, “and not necessarily among middle-aged and older adults.”
Why?
When asked why Secaucus has experienced so many suicide deaths in such a short period, no one interviewed was willing to speculate.
“The reasons are going to be unique to these specific individuals,” said Clayton. “We would have to know a lot more about them, what was going on with them.”
Two other doctors said they could not answer the question of why without talking to or treating the people who died.
Over the past two years, the shore community of Manasquan, N.J., has had a similar rash of suicides like those in Pal Alto. Like Secaucus, Manasquan has started “a grassroots community-based advisory counsel to elevate people’s understanding of healthy community practices,” said Middlesex County TLC Coordinator George Scott, EdS, MFT, who has been working with other TLC mental health workers to aid Secaucus.
Scott was among three mental health providers who led the town hall-style meeting on mental health last September.
“Public information is a critical piece of any community task force,” noted Scott. He said the goal of the community group will be to guide people to information and other resources that can help those dealing with mental illness and hopefully keep “the contagion from spreading by inoculating the community.”
The community practices, he said, will be suitable for all age groups and demographics, and will promote intervention and get people connected to appropriate mental health services, as necessary.
Recovery is the goal – and possible
The vast majority of people who attempt or commit suicide, Clayton emphasized, have some underlying mental health illness that can be both diagnosed and treated.
“The goal is for people to get better,” she said. “The aim is to get [people] into remission, which means well. It is possible and that is absolutely what people have to aim for.”
Mental health experts say that 90 percent of people who attempt suicide have at least one or two diagnosable mental illnesses. Only 10 percent of suicide attempts are considered to be “impulsive.”
According to Silvana Gomez, MA, the TLC coordinator for Hudson County, the warning signs of mental illness are also consistent across age groups. Irritability, moodiness, substance abuse, changes in sleep patterns, and a loss of interest in activities the person used to enjoy may all be signs of a mental health disorder. Drastic changes in behavior may also be a sign of trouble.
Parents and friends are often the first to see the early signs of depression, but may not recognize or properly label what they’re seeing.
“What we’re looking for are dramatic changes in behavior that continue for a sustained period of time,” said Gomez.
The task force coming together in Secaucus will try to raise awareness about mental illness/mental health and available resources people can turn to if they need help. When dealing with mental health issues, a range of treatment options are available, from private therapy to group counseling, medication, or hospitalization.
The important point the community should emphasize, Clayton stated, is that recovery from mental illness is, like other illnesses, possible.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.