A man had, ironically, tried to commit suicide this morning in our local community. He jumped off a heavily-used bridge.
What really shocked me, though, was the story they were reporting. It was not, in fact, about a man attempting suicide during National Suicide Prevention Week in our local community; it was actually about delays in traffic on I-474...the man attempting to take his own life was just the cause of the traffic delay. This suicide attempt was literally treated as an afterthought, as something that just happens sometimes and you have to deal with it, like a weather condition or road construction or something.
HOW, in the year 2015, is this STILL HAPPENING? Who in the newsrooms thought it was okay to treat a story like this as an afterthought? As just the reason to why traffic was delayed this morning?
I was absolutely appalled at the treatment of this story by the media. As I got settled into work later, I looked up the story online to see if there was any more coverage. There were 2 articles online that I found, and they were both almost the exact same thing that I heard on the radio. That a local 20 year old man had jumped off the bridge, causing delays on I-474. He was treated on the scene and taken to a local hospital. THAT'S IT!
There are even guidelines among the reporting/journalist community on how to treat stories about suicide, to prevent situations like this from ever happening. I did a quick google search and an entire website devoted to informing reporters of these guidelines came up as one of the first results. According to that website,
...Certain types of news coverage can increase the likelihood of suicide in vulnerable individuals.
In a world where there are rules widely protecting the rights and feelings of minorities and people who are different than "the norm," how on earth do we get a news story with the headline of:
??????
This statistic has steadily risen since their 2011 Peoria Area Community Assessment, which stated, "People who reported feeling sad or depressed for more than 2 days, 2009 compared to 2004. Peoria County 29.1%; % change from 2004, +7.6%; Tazewell County 30.5%; % change from 2004, +10.8%; Woodford County 18.9%; % change from 2004, - 2.9%.
So in 2014, 16.6% of people living in the Peoria Area were struggling with depression. That is not a small percentage, people. And it should scare you that that number has been consistently rising for over 10 years.
If you peruse the Peoria County Government website, you will see a ton of links to health-related resources. With an increase in numbers like this, you would expect the community to be doing something about it. There is a long side-bar on the main page that lists a lot of different pages related to health, and not one of them has anything mental-health related. So if you go straight to the Peoria County website to try to find resources available for mental health, you will have a very hard time finding anything.
Are you starting to be bothered yet? Just wait...
The HIGHEST percent of satisfaction is 39%, and that's in the demographic of earning $100,000 per year.
So only 39% of people in the WEALTHIEST category are satisfied with Peoria's mental health care...and that's to say nothing if you don't happen to make over $100,000 year.
The lowest percent of satisfaction reported (29%) was in the $50,000 to $99,999 range...that's the everyday average person. And they are the most unsatisfied with mental health care here in Peoria.
That is ridiculously appalling. If 16.6% of us struggle with just depression (who knows how high the statistic is if you factor in every single other type of mental illness), and the average satisfaction rate (based on annual household income) here is 33.7%, there is a HUGE problem.
That means there is an enormous need for mental health care, and an even bigger gap in the QUALITY of mental health care services.
That is not okay. This is 2015. We have three major hospitals in the city of Peoria alone, and countless other health programs/organizations; we have state-of-the-art medical technology and beautiful architecture and millions of dollars that go into our healthcare system. And our average satisfaction with mental health is 33.7%. I understand that you can't please everybody, but when the vast majority of people are not pleased, it is a much bigger issue.
From my own experiences and those that I love, I have seen how decrepit our mental healthcare system is...but I never knew the actual statistics until now...and it's absolutely despicable. There is just no excuse for this.
The biggest problem here is awareness and understanding. This is why I am so passionate about this...because people NEED it! PLEASE share this with as many people as you can. We have to get this message out to our community. Most people probably don't even realize that our system is so ineffective. If we spread the message, think of all the countless people we can help to have better quality lives—not to mention the number of lives we can save.
I feel SO much sympathy for the 20 year old man who attempted suicide on I-474 this morning. Not only did he not have access to quality care that he deserves as a human being, but also for the fact that his biggest struggle in life was made into a headline about the cause of traffic delays. That is just not acceptable, and I, for one, will not stand for it anymore.
Keep up the good work. Don't stop fighting for what you believe in.
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