The Missoulian, Sept. 11, on suicide prevention in Montana

Untreated mental illness. Easy access to firearms. Alcoholism and drug abuse. Poverty. Social isolation. Trauma. Chronic illness and disability. A culture that encourages individuals to solve their problems alone, without asking for or accepting help.

Those are some of the many convergent factors that add up to Montana’s excessive suicide rate, the highest in the nation at nearly 25 per 100,000 people. These same factors have led Missoula County to an even higher suicide rate - nearly 34 suicides per 100,000 people in 2014. That’s nearly three times the national suicide rate.

Missoula County now has the highest suicide rate in a state that has the highest suicide rate in the nation.

The tragedy of suicide is that it is entirely preventable. And Montana’s high suicide rate is completely unacceptable.

Much time and effort has been spent identifying the causes of suicide in Montana, and much ink has been spilled calling for greater public awareness and resources to combat the growing crisis.

It’s time to take stock of the steps being taken to prevent suicide in our state - and determine what steps must be taken next. This past week, National Suicide Prevention Week, is an apt time to do just that, while renewing public attention and community support for suicide prevention programs at the local and state level.

Suicide has been a major concern in Montana for a long time now. The state has ranked among the top five in the nation for its suicide rate for nearly four decades. In 2014, at least 243 Montanans died by suicide - more than the number of Montanans who died in car crashes that year. The numbers were even worse the following year, when 267 suicides were recorded in Montana.

The vast majority of suicides are completed by men, and in Montana they occur with the most frequency among those between the ages of 55 to 64 years old. A disproportionate number are Native Americans. More than half are carried out with a firearm. Nearly one in four are veterans.

Fortunately, hope is on the horizon. In recent years Montana has finally begun dedicating some much-needed focus to suicide prevention.

The 2015 Legislature, for one, approved the Montana Suicide Awareness and Prevention Training Act, which directs the state Office of Public Instruction to develop resources for schools and parents to identify at-risk youth and connect them to the help they need to get better.

And currently, the state is developing a strategic plan to tackle the alarmingly high rate of suicides among Native American children in Montana.

Meanwhile groups across Montana continue striving to boost the suicide prevention programs available to adults in their communities. The relatively new Western Montana Suicide Prevention Initiative, founded by the United Way of Missoula County, partnered with local groups and experts to offer a number of timely training and outreach events through the past week. The team includes the United Way, the Veterans Administration, local hospitals, Tamarack Grief Resource Services and Missoula Aging Services, among others.

One goal of these efforts is to raise public awareness of the warning signs of suicide, and of the resources available to combat it. Although many different factors can precipitate a suicide attempt, depression is a major one, and in fact, many experts name untreated depression as the No. 1 cause of suicide.

This is why it was encouraging to learn of a new health system recently formed by Providence Health and Services and St. Joseph Health. The new system, which includes more than 50 hospitals in seven states, includes a new institute and foundation dedicated to improving mental health care, with initial funding of $100 million.

While this funding will be disbursed throughout the system, there’s a strong case to be made that much of it should go to Montana, which is historically badly underserved when it comes to mental health services. The new institute will award grants to organizations in communities served by its member hospitals - meaning Missoula and Polson, primarily - and local groups working to provide mental health care ought to seize this opportunity.

Today marks the close of the annual National Suicide Prevention Week, but it should not mean the end of efforts to push for progress on suicide prevention. Instead, let’s use it as another rung on the ladder leading to a lower suicide rate in Missoula and Montana.