Suicide deaths in Bartholomew County have declined so far this year after hitting a record high last year, according to data from the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.

However, local officials remain cautious, warning that it is too early to celebrate a downward trend. The 2025 total is already higher than the 2022 total and has almost matched the 2023 total.

As of Thursday, a total of 10 people in Bartholomew County had committed death by suicide so far this year, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office. By comparison, there had been 14 deaths by suicide in Bartholomew County as of Sept. 7, 2024.

Half of the suicides this year have involved firearms, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office. The ages of the individuals who have taken their own lives this year have ranged from 18 to 70 and all of them have been male.

“We’re not sure why the suicide numbers spiked last year, and we’re cautious about celebrating a downturn,” said Bartholomew County Deputy Coroner Jay Frederick. “…I fear this calendar year’s total may not be much lower than last year’s.”

Last year, deaths by suicide in Bartholomew County soared to a record 18 — the highest annual total since at least 2015 and up from eight in 2023 and six in 2022, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.

Officials say that suicide is a complex issue, and many factors likely contributed to the increase last year, including social isolation and financial problems, among others.

Charlotte Barton Coombs, former executive director of Family Service Inc. and coordinator of the Bartholomew County Suicide and Overdose Review Team, or SOFR, told The Republic earlier this year that, “It’s very fair to say that we are seeing a public health crisis.”

“This public health issue, this crisis, is not going to get better any time soon,” she said.

A total of 13 death by suicides last year involved firearms, while four were hangings and one involved a knife injury, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office’s 2024 annual report. All of the victims were male.

The report also includes an analysis of 142 deaths by suicide in Bartholomew County from 2013 to 2024. Of those deaths, nearly 82% of victims were male, while 58% involved gunshot wounds and 26% were hangings.

People in their 30s and 40s each represented 20% of all deaths by suicide in the county from 2017 to 2024, followed by people in their 60s (18%) and 16% in their 20s. All other age groups represented a combined 26% of suicides — including 6% of victims who were younger than 20 years old.

Federal records also show that Indiana’s suicide rate has been trending upward in recent years and his higher than the national rate.

Indiana’s suicide rate was 17 per 100,000 people in 2023, up from 14.18 in 2019 and 14.28 in 2014, according to the recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By comparison, the national rate was 14.1 in 2023.

“Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Indiana and second leading cause of death for Hoosiers between the ages of 10 and 34 years. …More than 1,000 Hoosiers have been lost to suicide every year since 2016 … and Indiana is in the top 10 of U.S. states showing the largest percentage increase in deaths by suicide among 10- to 24-year-olds between 2007 and 2018,” according to Indiana Suicide Prevention.

The age-adjusted suicide rate in Columbus Regional Health’s service area — which includes Bartholomew County and several other counties — was 17.5 per 100,000 people from 2018 to 2020, which was higher than the age-adjusted state rate (15.1) and the national rate (13.9) over the same period, according to CRH’s most recent Community Health Needs Assessment.

Additionally, local data suggests that suicidal ideation has become more common.

The percentage of residents of Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings counties who reported thinking about taking their own lives has increased in recent years, according to CRH’s three most recent Community Health Needs Assessments.

A total of 10.1% of Bartholomew County residents who participated in the 2024 survey reported that they had considered suicide within the past year, up from 9.8% in the 2021 survey and 6.9% in the 2018 survey.

In 2024, 9.5% of Jennings County respondents reported considering suicide within the past year, up from 6.7% in 2021 and 1.4% in 2018.

The coroner’s office, for its part, said it will continue to provide reports with the local SOFR team.

The SOFR team is a multi-disciplinary group that meets monthly to review each overdose death and suicide in the county to examine what happened, what gaps may exist in local prevention efforts and develop data-informed prevention initiatives to prevent future deaths.

The SOFR team includes representatives from the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP), Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office, CRH and Centerstone, among others.

Last year, the SOFR team said it had identified those who chose death by suicide in Bartholomew County typically had been seen by a doctor or been to the hospital within two months before taking their lives. They also generally recently had a change in work status or financial status, including reduced work hours or retirement.

“For our part, we share all our (suicide and overdose) reports with the SOFR team, thanks to state law allowing us to share otherwise confidential records with them,” Frederick said. “The team uses our information along with other research to review cases of suicide and drug overdose and make recommendations.”

“As always, our office is grateful for those who work to reduce preventable deaths, and we’ll continue to provide information for their work,” Frederick added.
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