Local psychiatrist creates survey in hopes of preventing future suicides
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IDAHO FALLS — A local psychiatrist is doing what he can to figure out how to decrease and prevent future suicides in eastern Idaho.
“Idaho has one of the highest rates of suicide in the whole nation. We’re usually in the worst 10 states,” said Dr. Matt Larsen, a psychiatrist in Idaho Falls. “Most psychiatrists lose about three patients per year to suicide. I’ve been through it multiple times sadly. I’ve made that phone call multiple times to tell parents and loved ones, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’” he said.
Larsen explained to EastIdahoNews.com that he was the chairman of a local suicide prevention nonprofit organization for three years. He said they participated in a lot of awareness events, raised money, and donated to support groups.
“The hard part was not knowing if we were actually doing any good or if we were just trying really hard,” Larsen said.
He’s now created a research survey to try and see if he can make a difference. He wants to learn about similarities or patterns that lead to suicide so the problem can be addressed. The research survey is for people who lost a loved one to suicide and answer questions about the person who died.
“We have a lot of research and data about people who attempt suicide and survive and then get interviewed later. But for obvious reasons – there is very little research available about those who actually die by suicide,” Larsen said.
The survey is for people who live in Eastern Idaho and is 65 questions long. It’s being done through a graduate education program at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
“I have two main hopes for the results. One is that it gives us someplace to start that could actually help prevention because maybe it says most of them have gone to a doctor in the last 30 days,” he said. “So we can try to target doctors’ offices for how to help. It could be they dropped out of school in the last 30 days so we need to target people who just dropped out or it could be people who just left their religion or came out as a different gender or sexual orientation or something and if we can find something that’s true in the vast majority of people who die by suicide, that’s where we can target our prevention efforts.”
According to the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, Idaho had the 11th highest suicide rate within the United States in 2019. Suicide statistics in Idaho in 2020 showed that 421 Idahoans died by suicide and it was the 9th most common cause of death.
“We don’t know the reason someone kills themselves and that’s often the hardest part for family and loved ones,” he said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can call the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline at (208) 398-4357 (HELP) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round. Text support is also available 24/7.
You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255 (TALK).
Click here to take the survey if you have lost a loved one to suicide.