Health and Wellness: Suicide Prevention

It has been said that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But help is out there for people who are suffering. People who are in crisis need to know that there are ways of reaching out.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2020, over 45,000 Americans died by suicide and there were an estimated 1.20 million suicide attempts. According to the Canadian government, an average of more than 10 Canadians die by suicide each day. According to the University of Haifa, the number of suicide attempts in Israel increased linearly between 2013 – 2020 but actually decreased during the Coronavirus lockdowns.

On July 16, 2022, the United States debuted the three-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 988. This was the result of the work of many advocacy groups including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This number is a direct connection for anyone in need of support for mental health distress, which includes thoughts of suicide, substance abuse crisis, and emotional distress. This is a free service, available to anyone. There are interpretation services available in over 150 languages; Spanish speakers can access that language by pressing 2 and veterans can access specialized services by pressing 1. The original lifeline number, 800-273-8255, is still available. Using this service will also help by going directly to mental health support services as opposed to calling 911, which is not set up for such services.

Canada has a suicide prevention number, 1-833-456-4566 which is available 24/7/365. The text line in Canada is 45645 available from 4 PM to 12 MN Eastern Time. In Israel, the suicide hotline is *3201 (dial 1 for English).

Wishing all a happy, healthy, safe summer,

Mindy Steinholz
Health and Wellness Chair
msteinholz@wlcj.org