By Michael Bielawski
Recent news about two Vermont suicides by hanging highlight the ongoing challenges of depression in the wintery state which ranks third nationally for rates of depression.
One suicide was determined by the Williston Police Department after they got a call from a resident of South Brownell Road in mid-November about a grisly find that police later determined was a skull.
Canine dogs were used to locate more skeletal remains located about 200 feet from where the skull was found. The report concludes, “The remains were transported to the ME’s Office for positive identification and a possible cause of the death. At this point in time, the death does not appear to be suspicious.” On November 19, Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Elizabeth Bundock identified the body as Kevin Leland, 56, of Panton, VT. It states that the cause of death was “suicide by hanging.”
Also, the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office recently informed state police that the manner of death of Michele Demar, 33, of Northfield was suicide. On Aug. 3, 2023, she was found hanging, outdoors, in the Town of Washington. Her body was found near the intersection of Vermont Route 110 and Poor Farm Road.
Suicide attempts are on the rise
According to the Department of Health, suicide-related emergency department visits are up in 2023.
“As of the end of October, the rate of suicide-related ED visits is statistically higher than the previous 3-year average,” their report states.
Certain areas of the state are seeing it worse than others.
“So far this year, Rutland and Windham County residents have experienced statistically higher rates of suicide-related ED visits than the rest of the state,” it states. “Windham County residents are also experiencing a statistically higher rate of suicide deaths.”
The rate of suicide-related ED visits per 10,000 visits is a bit higher than usual this year. So far for 2023, it’s 252 visits, for 2022 it was 235. The highest age group is young people 15 to 24, per 10,000 visits, more than 575 of them are suicide-related in 2023, up from 536 in 2022.
As people get older, their tendency towards suicide-related visits goes down. For seniors aged 65 or older about 58.5 per 10,000 ED visits are suicide-related, that number was 51 for 2022.
Suicide attempts are nearly equal across males/females, and there is a slightly higher rate for BIPOC populations. For white people in 2023, nearly 247 ED visits per 10,000 are suicide related compared with 289 for BIPOC populations.
All of the data can be seen here on the Health Department’s webpage.
Suicide deaths are down
Despite there being an uptick in suicide attempts, the number of deaths from suicide is down slightly. Overall per 100,000 residents, there were 13.7 suicides in 2022 versus 12.9 in 2023.
Deaths from suicides do not vary much across adult age groups, in contrast with ED suicide-related visits seem to be much higher for young people. Young people ages 15-to-24 have lower rates of death per 100,000 from suicide, that number being 12.5 for 2023. For senior citizens, that number is 17.3.
Also in 2023, those 25-to-44 years old saw 18.7 suicides per 100,000 people. More data can be seen on charts and graphs on this page.
Depression rate 3rd highest nationally for Vermont
Vermont ranked poorly in a national ranking for depression, the Green Mountain state has the third highest rate in the nation.
“West Virginia (29%) is the most depressed state, followed by Kentucky (27.6%) and Vermont (26.6%), based on age-adjusted prevalence estimates from those survey responses in 2021,” reported USNews.com based on a study by the Centers for Disease Control, The same report indicates that the overall nation ranks poorly for depression.
“America overall is among the most depressed countries in the world, and also among the most addicted and the most anxious,” the report states. “According to the Global Burden of Disease study, the U.S. ranked first for substance abuse disorders, 15th for anxiety disorders and 29th for depressive disorders as of 2019.”
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle and the Burlington Daily News
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Categories: Life&Death
Phil Baruth needs to introduce a bill requiring a 3 day waiting period before purchasing rope to reduce the number of suicides.
Oh but I thought instituting a 3-day waiting period to buy guns was going to solve this? It’s destroyed the gun sales events and will harm the businesses and ranges that depend on this income but we were supposed to believe it would “save lives “. As for why VT ranks so poorly, it’s not weather as NH and ME have long cold snowy winters too. Perhaps it has more to do with the culture of VT which has ceased being pro-family and conservative? And it’s the least churched US state. Study after study tells us that religious conservatives are the happiest and most content with their lives.
You are onto something, Vermont went to the dogs ever since the first democrat stole an election.
Suicide is so sad, for family, friends, and society as a whole. BUT, there are many ways to achieve committing suicide. Pills (over medicating), rope (hanging), driving a car at high speed into a tree, jumping off a bridge into water (drowning), closing the garage door with the car running, or even a gun. My point, as sad as suicide is, the answer isn’t new gun laws because that will not fix anything. If someone wants to die, they will find a way. The answer isn’t removing the means to the end (guns, rope, etc) it’s being a friend to those that are depressed. Paying attention and getting help for them before they commit suicide. As a society that votes for candidates, we have a responsibility to vote political representatives that will fix things, to make lives better. It isn’t a popularity contest, it isn’t just voting a certain party just because you always have. Our government has allowed a senereo that has removed all hope from people’s lives. Crime, Inflation (which effects ability to buy food, prescriptions, etc). We all have a responsibility to keep suicide out of our community. Laws will not do that !
Clearly, we need a three day waiting period on rope.
S.Lowery, Ya beat me to it !
They need to look into the prescriptions these people are on.
I have conquered my depression by planning to move out of Vermont, it is no longer the paradise I moved to in the early ’70’s. It is still pretty, but the fishing isn’t what it used to be and the river is filling up with sediment and getting shallow. The rivers need dredging, act 250 needs to go, and the democrats need to be removed. But if you are happy, stay.
Does Vermont need any more unsolved murders? Suicide is the “old way” of taking unsolved murders off the books – especially if no one even noticed they were gone.
daughterofthegreenmountains, exactly. Murder by hanging has often been disguised as suicide.
Being the despots passed an assisted suicide law – are they shocked or pleased? The globalist agenda is depopulation, how they get to their goal doesn’t matter to them. The fact bureaucrats, politicians, NGOs, and non-profits are pretending to care when it is their policies driving the populace to desparation and misery. They are simply following their Master’s orders and gaslighting people to think otherwise. Welcome to their new world order.
It’s perfectly clear that all cordage should immediately be banned from the
possession of irresponsible individuals!