Board discusses suicide prevention

Suicide prevention was on the agenda at the Marquette County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night.

Commissioner Steve Pence and former commissioner Mike Quayle have been meeting with various groups and organizations about suicide prevention in Marquette County.  They usually meet once a month.

So far Pence and Quayle have found that there are plenty of services in Marquette County for suicide prevention, but there needs to be better coordination between those services.  Pence said that suicide prevention is a broad concept, and discussing it goes beyond only suicide prevention.

Pence added that he cannot give an intelligent report to the community or the board about suicide prevention.  They first need to do an inventory on what organizations are doing to prevent suicide, and what programs are being offered.  He said that is the first priority in creating an effective report.

Pence said there is, on average, one teenage suicide in Marquette County per year, and that number has decreased in the past few years.  One group that needs more focus for suicide prevention are males over the age of 50.