Suicide conference takes aim at "silent killer"

SPARKS, Nev. - Taking aim at a "silent killer," hundreds of doctors, counselors and family members of victims gathered at the first U.S. conference on preventing suicide - now the eighth-leading cause of death in the country.

"In the past, suicide has never been recognized as a problem," said Jerry Weyrauch, founder and director of the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network based in Marietta, Ga.

"It was accepted as a fact of life you couldn't do anything about. Now we know better," he said Friday at the conference drawing 450 professionals and family members who call themselves "suicide survivors."

Nearly 30,000 Americans committed suicide in 1997, replacing AIDS in the No. 8 spot on the list of leading causes of deaths in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

"Every 17 minutes someone kills themself, and yet we've never had a conference on it," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., whose own father committed suicide 25 years ago.

"It has been the silent killer," he said. "People are crying out for help."

A number of Nevadans - residents of the state with the highest suicide rate in the country - told their stories at a roundtable session with Weyrauch and Reid.

Rosemary Melarkey of Carson City, Nev., said she learned about the conference in her research following the suicide of her husband, who left her with a 3-year-old daughter to raise on her own.

"The day he chose to put a hole in his heart, he put a hole in my heart too," she said. "But I needed to go on. Having to go on is very, very difficult. I found there were very few if any services for someone like this me.

Cindy Marchant of Gardnerville, Nev., said she never suspected anything was seriously wrong before her 13-year-old son, Eric, committed suicide earlier this year.

"He didn't show any outward signs of depression now that we've learned what those signs are," Marchant said during a roundtable at the conference on Thursday.

"He went to the basement and hung himself. ... It has devastated us," she said. In the aftermath, she too has been surprised by the lack information publicized about suicide.

"We have very little education in the school system," she said.

Jeremy Shields of Ely, Nev. said his best friend killed himself two months ago with no warning.

"He wasn't even 19 years old yet. I had been out with him the Monday before and he was talking about his life in the future," he said.

Shields' father works as a mortician in Ely.

"So I've dealt with death all my life," he said. "I thought suicide was just one way that life ended. But I've found it's not part of life. It's an unnatural thing," he said.

Weyrauch founded the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network after his daughter, a physician, killed herself in 1987. He said the national conference is an important step in generating public debate about suicide.

"People who are at risk don't want to come forward because of the stigma that they have mental illness. We've got to lift the stigma," Weyrauch said.

Reid agreed.

"We haven't been able to talk about it," he said. "Not too long ago, you couldn't even bury suicide victims in a normal cemetery. Most religions are very negative about someone who commits suicide.

"For most survivors, it is embarrassing to talk about it."

The conference at the Nugget Hotel and Casino just outside of Reno is being cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources & Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In addition to destigmatizing suicide, we are trying to identify the best practices - what seems to work, what are the best chances for success," said Dr. Morton Silverman, a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago.

Speakers scheduled through the weekend included U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, who earlier this year identified suicide as "a serious public health problem."

Satcher said that in addition to the roughly 30,000 Americans who take their lives each year, another 750,000 attempt suicide.

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