I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico has of the highest rates of suicide in the nation but improving rural access to the Internet might change that, according to Radford University psychologist James Werth Jr.
Suicide rates in New Mexico and across the nation are higher in rural areas than urban areas, Werth said in a recent story in Mental Health Law Weekly. Better access to broadband could provide better access to suicide prevention and behavioral medicine resources for both patients and rural physicians and school officials, Werth suggested.
“Even though people live farther apart, there may be stronger connections — they need to rely on one another,” Werth said.
“County by county or state by state, the top areas in terms of suicide are rural,” Werth told the weekly. “The top five states are Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nevada, whereas D.C., New Jersey, New York Connecticut and Massachusetts have the lowest rates.”
In New Mexico, youth suicide rates have spiked this year on Indian reservations.
Mental illness, a family history of suicide and feelings of hopelessness all play a role in suicide risk, Werth said. But rural residents feel more isolated, may be less willing to ask for help and typically have ready access to more lethal tools for suicide, such as firearms and pesticides, he said.
Werth spoke about his research Thursday at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Diego, California, according to Mental Health Law Weekly.
Leading risk factors for suicide in rural areas include poverty, unemployment and importantly, lack of access to treatment, Werth said.
“People are not going to drive five hours to visit a counselor,” he said.
New Mexico has the dark distinction of having the nation’s third-highest suicide rate, behind Nevada and Alaska, according to an analysis of federal statistics conducted by Mental Health America. New Mexico ranks only 36th in the nation for diagnosed clinical depression rates, according to the Mental Health America website — but this could be an underestimate caused by the very low number of psychologists and psychiatrists in rural New Mexico.
New Mexico suicide prevention resources and contacts are available online.
