Suicides dropped by one-third in Clallam County in 2019 and were down by one in Jefferson County compared to 2018, according to coroners’ office reports.
There were 13 suicides in Jefferson County in 2019, including one who jumped off the Hood Canal Bridge, and 14 in 2018.
In addition, the body of a 57-year-old male who died by asphyxia in 2017 or 2018 was found in January 2019, Laura Mikelson, a legal assistant with the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, said Wednesday.
In Clallam County, 2019 saw a dramatic decrease to 19 deaths by suicide compared to a record 31 in 2018 and a then-record 23 in 2017.
“It’s hard to decide whether there’s a causal relationship between the work we’re doing locally or if it coincided in time,” Dr. Allison Berry Unthank, Clallam County Health Officer, said last week.
“There’s been a really concerted effort to try to turn the numbers around.
“That’s included coordination between agencies that see folks so they don’t slip through the cracks.
“We’re seeing a lot of that, coordination with law enforcement crisis responders and emergency response.”
A taller fence lining the Eighth Steeet Bridges in Port Angeles appeared to play a small part in that change.
Eight people jumped to their deaths from the two, 100-foot-tall Eighth Street bridges over Valley Creek and Tumwater Creek in Port Angeles between February 2009 and March 2018.
Reconstruction completed in February 2009 included 4-foot, 6-inch railings that proved an increasing attractant to people wanting to do themselves harm.
Four people died by suicide at the bridges between June 2017 and March 2018.
New fencing, which varies between 8-feet-8-inches tall and 10-feet-7 inches tall, was installed by September 2018.
There have been no deaths off the two spans in almost two years.
“Deaths by jumping are a small subset of suicides but a very real one,’ Unthank said.
“Getting the fence was the right direction for people [taking] that method.”
Gunshots
For both 2018 and 2019, the most common form of suicide in both counties was death by gunshot wounds followed by asphyxia, by hanging or other means.
Those were the only two manners of death for 2019 suicides in Clallam County, where 2018 suicides includes death by intentional overdose, carbon monoxide poisoning, blunt-force trauma and drowning.
Intentional-overdose and exsanguination suicides were recorded in Jefferson County in 2019, and in 2018, a 61-year-old male intentionally ran his car off the road, according to official reports.
Also in 2018, an 18-year-old male from California died by self-immolation.
Males from Lakewood, Ohio, Seattle and Joint Base Lewis-McChord also died by self-inflicted means in Jefferson County in 2018 and 2019.
The ages of suicides in Jefferson County in 2019 ranged from 21-79 and consisted of 13 males and one female.
The average age was 52, compared to 54 in 2018.
In Clallam County, where suicide statistics are presented according to age ranges, the largest single group, six individuals, was 50-59 years old in 2019.
Four people who died by suicide in Clallam County were between 70-79, and two between 90-99.
Three of the 19 in 2019 were between 15-39.
In Clallam County, 16 males and three females died by suicide in 2019 compared to 24 males and seven females in 2018.
The majority occurred in the unincorporated county in 2019, as they have every year since 2012, when seven of 14 suicides occurred in Port Angeles, five in the unincorporated county and one each in Forks and Sequim.
Four occurred in Sequim in both 2018 and 2019, five over both years in Forks and 13 over both years in Port Angeles.
In Jefferson County, eight of the 14 people died by suicide in Port Townsend in 2019 compared to nine in 2018.
Others suicides occurred in 2019 in Brinnon, Shine, Chimacum, Coyle and on the side of the road on state Highway 104.
In 2018, they also occurred in Port Ludlow, Chimacum, Port Hadlock and on state Highway 104 by the Hood Canal Bridge.
Unthank said the Clallam County suicide task force, which began meeting in 2019, includes members of the health department, the mental health services sector and law enforcement and emergency response personnel.
She said the committee, which gathers monthly, has worked on improving crisis response.
The downward trend in deaths by suicide in 2019 was encouraging, Unthank said.
“If we keep working on it, we can keep turning those numbers downward,” she said.
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
