Local Courts Encourage Everyone to “Speak Up, Save Lives”

Staff of the Circuit, Sessions, and Juvenile courts are joining their fellow Tennesseans across the Volunteer State to promote suicide awareness this September, National Suicide Prevention Month. According to some of the most recent data, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the Volunteer State. Suicide does not discriminate. It cuts across age, economic, ethnic, and social boundaries to claim its victims.

Suicide claims the lives of over 1,000 Tennesseans per year, with 100 or more of those annual deaths being between the ages of 10-24. Nationally, suicide rates among the 15-24 year old age group has increased over 200% in the last 50 years. However, our elderly population, 85 years and older, are at the greatest risk of suicide. While men are 4 times more likely than women to actually commit suicide, women are 3 times more likely to attempt suicide.

Clinical depression is closely linked with suicide. The risk of suicide in people with major depression is about 20 times that of the general population. Dependence on drugs and/or alcohol places individuals at greater risk. Surviving loved ones of suicide victims are themselves at greater risk of falling victim to suicide.

The Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network and other organizations throughout the nation are standing by and ready to help. If you, a family member, or a friend find yourself in the midst of a personal crisis and ever consider suicide as an option, help is just a phone call or a text message away. Call 800-273-TALK (8255) or text TN to 741741. Someone is available 24/7 to listen and talk and your conversations are confidential.