{"id":101252,"date":"2020-06-09T22:12:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T02:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=101252"},"modified":"2020-06-09T22:12:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T02:12:45","slug":"northampton-county-drop-in-deaths-by-suicide-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=101252","title":{"rendered":"Northampton County  &#8211;  Drop in Deaths-by-Suicide in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lamont McClure, the Northampton County Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Suicide Prevention Task Force are pleased to report that death-by-suicides in Northampton County fell to forty in 2019. The Northampton County Coroner reported fifty-three deaths-by- suicide in 2018, and fifty-one in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince its formation, the Task Force\u2019s goal has been to reduce death-by-suicide in Northampton County by 20%,\u201d says DHS Director Susan Wandalowski. \u201cThere are many factors that affect the suicide rate, and this is only one year\u2019s results, but we find the decrease very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past two decades, death-by-suicide has increased 31 \u2013 37% in Pennsylvania,\u201d says Lamont McClure. \u201cWe formed this task force to address one of the leading causes of death in America, deaths, I believe, that are caused by depression. It\u2019s heartening to see evidence that some of our efforts to prevent suicide may be working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Suicide Prevention Task Force was formed in 2018 to develop and implement strategies to reduce the risk of suicide and stigma of mental illness. Its sixty-five participants include representatives from school districts, faith-based communities, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), three hospital networks, Lehigh University, the Bethlehem Health Bureau and community advocates as well as DHS and the Northampton County Coroner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>The Task Force has partnered with NAMI to create a training program for first responders, partnered with the Center for Humanistic Change to create suicide prevention videos, published brochures for families who have lost someone to suicide and arranged QPR training seminars.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nBecky Bartlett<br \/>\nDeputy Director of Administration<br \/>\nNorthampton County Government Center<br \/>\n669 Washington Street<br \/>\nEaston, PA 18042<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/\">https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><code class=\"code\">-AMAZONPOLLY-ONLYWORDS-START-<\/code><br \/>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner3023'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/' target=\"_blank\" data-id='3023' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner7036'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com' target=\"_blank\" data-id='7036' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<code class=\"code\">-AMAZONPOLLY-ONLYWORDS-END-<\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?post_type=adverts_posts&p=7036\" class=\"read-more\">Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/suicide.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/101253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}