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From Investigation to Prevention: Coroner James Whipps on Reducing Suicide Rates

Published on: 19th September, 2024

From Investigation to Prevention Coroner James Whipps on Reducing Suicide Rates

In this episode, Natrona County Coroner James Whipps discusses his background and role in investigating deaths, with a special emphasis on suicide prevention. He shares insights into the frequency and preventability of suicides in his community, underlining the importance of public awareness, early intervention, and community involvement. Whipps elaborates on signs and symptoms of suicidal tendencies, emphasizing the need for education and proactive measures to reduce suicide rates. He also describes his involvement in various task forces aiming to mitigate preventable deaths and highlights the shift in demographic trends of suicides towards younger individuals. The conversation touches on societal attitudes towards suicide and the critical role of resilience and coping skills training in preventing such tragedies.

Meet Our Guest: Coroner James Whipps

Coroner James Whipps has been the Natrona County coroner for five years and has amassed 25 years of experience in death investigation. His diverse background spans business, military law enforcement, and medical-legal death investigation. Unlike many, Whipps has taken a proactive stance on suicide prevention, driven by a mission to reduce preventable deaths.

Understanding the Role of a Coroner

James Whipps elaborates on his role within Natrona County, explaining how his office predominantly investigates unnatural deaths while also dealing with natural deaths occurring outside medical facilities. As an elected official, Whipps is not only accountable for coroner business but also for integrating himself within the community to push forward his mission of preventing deaths that can be avoided, including suicides.

Suicide Prevention: From Response to Prevention

Whipps' journey into proactive suicide prevention began with his involvement in the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force. Initially rooted in response, his role evolved as he recognized the prevalence of preventable suicides. The PROSPER initiative, which stands for the Proactive Reduction of Suicide in Populations via Evidence-Based Research, underscores his belief that addressing suicide requires more than just responding to incidents—it necessitates a comprehensive, proactive community approach.

Identifying Signals and Achieving Intervention

During the discussion, Dr. Kent Corso and Coroner Whipps highlights the importance of recognizing signs and symptoms of suicidal thoughts. They reiterate that most individuals contemplating suicide display signs, albeit often cryptic, signaling their internal struggle without directly stating their intent. Common signs include expressing feelings of worthlessness or desiring death, changes in behavior, and making statements with a foreshortened future perspective.

Breaking the Stigma: Suicide is Not Just a Mental Health Issue

A significant portion of the podcast focuses on breaking the stigma associated with suicide. Whipps emphasizes that although mental health can play a role, suicide is a multifaceted social issue. He challenges the notion that suicidal ideation equates to having a mental health condition, arguing that societal and personal stressors often precipitate these thoughts.

Raising Awareness and Community Education

Awareness and education stand out as fundamental tools in suicide prevention. Whipps shares statistical insights, revealing that Wyoming has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation and even the world. He postulates that educating the community about the signs of suicidal thoughts and encouraging intervention at crucial moments can save lives.

Empowering Communities to Act

The discourse ventures into the need for community-driven solutions. The hosts discuss that even though the issue is complex and diverse, the solution lies within community involvement. Educating youth on resilience and coping skills is vital, as many underlying issues manifest during adolescence and become critical during adulthood.

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

In closing, Coroner Whipps asserts the need for widespread education on recognizing and addressing suicide. He encourages communities to adopt a proactive stance, emphasizing the importance of early intervention. Dr. Kent Corso echoes these sentiments and promises to delve deeper into practical solutions in future episodes.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a reminder of the impactful role each individual can play in suicide prevention. By being informed, empathetic, and ready to intervene, communities can help save lives. The discussion with Coroner James Whipps underscores the gravity of the issue and highlights that while the challenge is significant, it is not insurmountable with collective effort and awareness.

We hope this conversation inspires you to take action in your community. Stay tuned for more insights and solutions in our upcoming episodes.

For more information on mental health support, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

For more information on Prosper, go to the website

Transcript
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Dr Kent Corso: Hi, my name is Kent Corso and I'm your host for this

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episode of One Minute Can Save a Life.

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While I am a licensed clinical psychologist, none of these guests

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are my patients, nor does anything I say constitute medical advice.

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The views conveyed during our conversations do not reflect the

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views, positions, or policies of any private or public organization.

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This is simply a series of conversations with people who have some connection to

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hardship, suicide, mental health, or loss.

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There's so much we can learn from one another, so let's get started.

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Today's guest is Coroner James Whipps of Natrona County.

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Welcome.

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Thank you, sir.

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Can you tell the audience a little bit about who you are and

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what your background is, James?

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Coronor James Whipps: Absolutely.

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I am the current Natrona County coroner.

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I've been the coroner for five years, been in the business of

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investigating death for 25 years now.

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And my background is pretty diverse in business and military law

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enforcement, and obviously higher medical legal death investigation.

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Dr Kent Corso: Great.

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So does that also mean, Coroner Whips, that you are a law enforcement officer

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or prior law enforcement officer?

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Coronor James Whipps: I have my degree in criminal justice and primarily

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I did a lot of my investigative work in the private sector.

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But the coroner System or quasi law enforcement in that we have

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jurisdiction within the death scenes and act in an investigative fashion,

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law enforcement wise with that.

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Okay.

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Dr Kent Corso: And can you talk a little more about your role

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within the Trona County, whether it's procedural or processes?

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Without getting into too much detail, just so that our listeners have a

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sense of what you do day in and day

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Coronor James Whipps: out.

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Sure.

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So our expertise in the coroner's office is to investigate

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unnatural death primarily.

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Now we do take on a lot of cases that are natural death, which comes

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into the, the medical portion of it.

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When death happens outside of a medical facility and.

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We step in to investigate just to make sure that something

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unnatural didn't happen.

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Primarily, we get called out on every scene that basically happens outside

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of a facility that's unnatural.

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And we will go into facilities when people end up in the facility due to an

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unnatural death or A death that is unknown that needs to be investigated and figured

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out the, that manner of cause of death.

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I'm an elected official.

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I play a role there as coroner.

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I have the job of doing the coroner business, but I'm also an elected

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official and then try and play a part in the community in that aspect.

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And then I'm also involved in doing what I feel.

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I was called to this job to do, and that's to do everything in my

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power to try and reduce preventable death, suicide being one of those.

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So, I'm active in a lot of review committees and, uh, task forces.

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And all those kinds of different things so much that I probably got to start saying

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no, you're pretty quick to some of this focusing on priorities, but yeah, that's

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pretty much what I do is the, uh, working on active investigation with my team.

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I'm, I'm working on.

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Those things that would reduce our caseload, the preventable death

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types of deals, and trying to be the prevention factor there.

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Dr Kent Corso: Let's talk a little more about preventable deaths.

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I was first introduced to you in the context of the program that

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we are implementing in multiple counties in Wyoming, that's PROSPER.

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The proactive reduction of suicide in populations via evidence based research.

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When I was first introduced to you, Coroner Whips, I was impressed by how

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active you are on that prevention side of things versus solely the responsive

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side of things when a death happens.

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What got you into that upstream prevention work?

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Coronor James Whipps: The former coroner, when I first came on,

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actually hooked me up with the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force.

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The Natrona And I was a member of that and it spiraled from there, suicide

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being in my opinion, the number one preventable death that there is.

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I fit with my mission that I needed to get out and work in that area

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and it just really snowballed in the fact that suicide is so multifaceted.

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And affects so many different areas of the community that it required

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my involvement in several groups.

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So,

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Dr Kent Corso: from your perspective, suicide is one of the most preventable

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deaths, I would agree with you.

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And if we try to look at the data briefly, just to make sure that we're leveling

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the playing field with our audience.

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80 percent of people who are suicidal show some sign or symptom that they're

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struggling, 20 percent typically do not.

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So if we want to truly be realistic about the impact we can make.

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In those types of preventable deaths, we should expect about 80

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percent reduction in suicide if we're doing absolutely everything we can.

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Coronor James Whipps: And I agree with you on that wholeheartedly.

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One of the things that comes out of my position and the reason that I

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feel that I can help the community as a whole with this is on the

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backside where I can look backwards once everything has truly gone south.

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Thank you.

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And get the big picture where I think that the community as a whole

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only sees a small part of this.

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And one of the things that I've noticed when I start researching these cases.

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is that almost always I can find where the signs, the symptoms were displayed,

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but the intervention didn't happen.

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And if we could have intervened at those particular moments in

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time, we could have saved a life.

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Dr Kent Corso: I see.

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So your findings so far is, and I like how you say that.

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Most community members may see a suicide at a point in time, but

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you're able to have the long view.

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That is to say, you're able to look back over many years of data and then

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to look deeply within each case to pull together some patterns or some

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common situations, opportunities, or maybe even failed opportunities.

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And it sounds like what you're saying is a trend you've noticed is that many

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of the suicides in the Toronto County.

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The person did display some signs or symptoms, but there was no one

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who initiated a conversation with them about those signs and symptoms.

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Am I understanding you?

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Coronor James Whipps: You are, that is correct.

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I can see where, and honestly, it's in my opinion, it's Really a, a

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lack of education to the community as a whole on those symptoms.

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When someone has, has basically gone down that rabbit hole on their

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normal behavior, this is different and, and needs to be dealt with.

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That they, they need help that particular moment in time.

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The other thing that I notice, and when you spoke the other night, the Prosper

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event for the community, you brought up something that I've been saying for

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years, in that our community, and I think probably even Wyoming as a whole,

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and maybe, you know, all the communities that go through what we call the Suicide

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Belt, really have hardened themselves or taken that, the attitude that this is the

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way it is, this is the way it's always been, this is the way it will always be.

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So they put suicide out there in a bubble as a norm, and there's nothing

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that we can do to affect that.

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Dr Kent Corso: So your observation, Coroner Whips, is that the greater

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community in Natrona just accepts that suicide's a problem here,

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and that's just the way it is.

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And maybe they've become either numb to it, or immune to it, or I don't

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want to say a cold or callous because I've met the people in that community.

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They're very kind people.

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They're very engaging people.

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So there's something, some sort of a human or behavioral phenomenon, maybe

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it's psychological that has happened.

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That's what you're saying.

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Correct.

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Just to go back a moment, you said that the recent suicides, people

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didn't notice the signs and symptoms.

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Let's just Open that conversation up for a moment for our listeners.

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What are those signs and symptoms they should be looking for?

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Coronor James Whipps: It's a lot of times things that take them out

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of what you know to be their norm.

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And what I find a lot of it is very cryptic in that the person is asking for

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help, but doesn't want to come right out and say, I'm having suicidal thoughts.

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It could be simple things like.

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I wish I were dead.

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Life is no longer worth living.

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So,

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Dr Kent Corso: it sounds like people are hinting, but they are

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not comfortable coming right out and saying, I'm thinking of killing myself.

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And it makes sense that they hint.

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Maybe they say things like, Oh, all of that won't matter anyway in a few weeks.

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Right?

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Something that suggests they have a foreshortened future.

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It makes sense that they are not forthcoming with it because number one,

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people don't seek help easily in general.

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And when it comes to talking about suicide, there are all sorts of

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worries that if I say I'm thinking of killing myself, people might

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think I'm crazy or I might lose my job or I might lose my friends.

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Is that true?

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What's happening there?

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Coronor James Whipps: Yes.

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As a matter of fact, mentioned that as mental health and there's the,

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the stigma or the belief at suicide.

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Is mental health condition.

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You say you're suicidal or having suicidal ideations is for some reasons tied to

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you have mental health problems, right?

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And it's treated that way, whether it's through a 381 holds, whether

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it's the interventions really put you in a bubble of crazy having some

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sort of mental health condition.

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And when you look at the picture as a whole, that's very rarely the case.

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You may have a mental health diagnosis that may contribute, but

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really what we're looking at are multifaceted social conditions that

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are bringing people to this dark place.

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Honestly, if we're going to tackle this, that's what we have to go after.

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It's like I said, uh, people tend to think of it.

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As a mental health condition, you're not going to find suicide in the DSM

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5 as a mental health condition and you'll never find a coroner, medical

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examiner, or anybody listing a cause of death as a mental condition.

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Obviously, it may play a part as a contributing factor.

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Suicide is, like I said, so complex that there are so many things that go

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into it that bring people to that place.

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It's never just one single thing, right?

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Yeah, it's

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Dr Kent Corso: usually a combination of stressors that leads them to think

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that and, and actually act on it.

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So from your perspective, Coroner, if it's a highly complex issue, if it's a

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social issue, people in Natrona County might be um, to it, or let's just say

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accepting that this is the way things are, what do we need to do differently?

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What can we possibly do to improve

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Coronor James Whipps: this?

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One of the things that I've always said since really delving into this project

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is that intervention is the absolute key.

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When you look at these suicides, a lot of things that will go into making it

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up, but it's one brief moment in time where the blinders are on, everything

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goes dark, and you're in that tunnel, and suicide is the only option.

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If intervention can take place, To get you past that one moment,

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then life has been saved.

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As far as what can we do, because suicides, at least from my

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research and my perspective on the whole thing, is very diverse.

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It's very unique.

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It's very hard to pinpoint any one cause like you would for any

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other problem and go after it.

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Like I said, any one group, any one organization, they can't do it alone.

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You're not going to be able to affect it.

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What it takes is the entire community having an education and understanding

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what that dark place looks like and the things that make it up and being

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comfortable enough to make that intervention before they get to that

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point, especially in the youth bullying.

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All the crazy social media stuff that goes on now with our youth

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and all these factors and we have to be able to attack all

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Dr Kent Corso: of them.

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I hear you saying a few things, Coroner.

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One thing I hear you saying is we need to raise awareness and we

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need everybody to understand what those signs and symptoms look like.

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The second thing I hear you saying Is that then people really need to

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lean forward and be part of that solution to do whatever training

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we give them in order to intervene.

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I also hear you saying that one size doesn't fit all or maybe another way

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to say that is there are multiple solutions that can be implemented.

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It's not just one solution that's going to solve everything.

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So let me ask this.

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What do people in the Trona need to hear to realize?

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This is not just the way things are, or things don't have to stay this way.

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How do we help people understand that this is changeable?

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Especially if their expectation is just more of the same.

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More suicide, or high suicide.

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Coronor James Whipps: Awareness being probably that key word.

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People have to recognize that there's a problem.

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I talked to several people, and they're literally shocked.

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When I tell them the numbers,

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Dr Kent Corso: let's state those numbers clearly corner.

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Where are we with the numbers?

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And how does that compare to other localities in

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Coronor James Whipps: Wyoming right now for this year, we're sitting on 22

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suicides by percentage of population.

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That's extremely high in Wyoming, but I don't think it's probably

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the highest when it comes to that.

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Vitals and statistics, when they report this, there's always an asterisk near

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some of these, because you may have a community of 3, 000 people and one

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suicide may make them one of the higher percentage of population that there is.

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When it comes to suicide by total number, I'm right up near the

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top because I do have one of the higher populations in the state.

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But.

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Wyoming as a whole is always been in the top one, two or three in the nation.

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And people won't believe me when I say this, but when you look at

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percentage of population, we're one of the top in the world.

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So there is a specific problem.

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Now, research has been done across the board on everything from wind

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to altitude to the world to name it.

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And because every case is unique and it's so diverse, you

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can't pinpoint any one thing.

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And a lot of times when you can't pinpoint the root cause, you can't come up

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Dr Kent Corso: with a solution.

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That's right.

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And let's be honest, we can't change the wind.

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We can't change the altitude.

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We're not going to change the ruralness because that's part

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of what makes Wyoming amazing.

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The communities that are either farmers or ranchers or miners, there are such.

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Rich endowments in Wyoming of natural resources that drive many of the

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industries and many of the lifestyles, philosophies, cultural elements.

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So what part can we mitigate?

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Coronor James Whipps: Again, it's going to be awareness and it's going to be.

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Prevention and intervention, for example, in a bigger sense, if you had an airline

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going down every single day and killing everybody on board, everybody would know

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about and be jumping to and going, what's going on, treating it like an epidemic,

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a pandemic, something bad that they're going to go after and try and fix.

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People need to know what the problem is and recognize that there is a problem.

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And then, like I said, be educated and be willing to step

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in and do something about it.

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Dr Kent Corso: Absolutely.

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Let's get people aware.

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Once they're aware, let's give them tools so they can help intervene.

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And that involves education and maybe training.

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The kind of training that we're doing, obviously, in several different counties.

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Does everybody want to help corner whips?

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Is everybody just.

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Really looking to help others and they've got tons of free time.

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Or are you suggesting that in the awareness process that will motivate

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people to be more a part of the solution?

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Coronor James Whipps: I'm a believer that people are good at their core.

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And when we talk about someone who has.

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Completed suicide.

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They have a group of people around them that obviously care, but for whatever

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reason were ignorant to what was going on with that particular person, whether

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it's something that they just didn't recognize through lack of awareness

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or any one of those factors, there's.

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Always going to be someone around these people that are willing to step in.

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It's just, they've got to know that there's a problem and

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they've got to know how to fix it.

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That tends to make people shy away because of its stigma from anything.

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And we'll have that question mark above their head.

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What do I do?

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Dr Kent Corso: That's a great point, Corder.

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It sounds like what you're saying is more of the lost survivors.

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So these are people who have lost a loved one to suicide.

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If more of the lost survivors in the Trona County were able to have a platform,

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were able to describe what are the signs they saw just prior to their loved one

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ending his or her life, this might educate people, resonate with people, it might

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Help them have empathy for those who have lost someone, thereby motivating

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them to be part of the solution.

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Is that

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Coronor James Whipps: what you're saying?

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Absolutely.

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It's again, the, the, the community as a whole is the only answer to this.

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I agree.

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It's, it is the only answer it's, it's that everybody recognizes there's a

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problem and knows what those, those signs, those symptoms, those things are.

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And is proactive about that is willing to step in and get

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someone help or, or be that.

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That in between person.

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Dr Kent Corso: Sure.

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In the short term, it sounds like you're describing behaviors that

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in my observation are very much consistent with the culture and

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value system of those in Wyoming, and that is to be a good neighbor.

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Exactly.

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Good friend, good loved one, brother, sister, mother, father.

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So it sounds like we need to encourage people to live by their values.

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We need to encourage people to do what they would normally do, even

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though this seems to be a daunting or intimidating or, or abnormal

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situation that someone's suicidal.

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It's really every other circumstance where they would be

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inclined to reach out and help.

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Coronor James Whipps: Correct.

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And the bigger piece, and one of the other things I may have mentioned,

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education, this needs to start very early on everybody to include your school

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districts and everything are so afraid of that word that they're unwilling

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to really educate our youth and tackle this early on our statistics nationwide.

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Traditionally, what you were looking at was the middle

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aged white male type of deal.

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Now in the last Year or two in my county specifically, and I

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imagine probably all overwhelming, maybe all over the United States.

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That demographic has shifted.

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Right now, half of my suicides are under the age of 45.

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With that, and again, I get the advantage of looking back over the entirety of

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this, what I'm finding is that I can see where these problems really originated

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and started in the adolescence years.

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Interesting.

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If we could have intervened, educated, done those things during those years,

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you're really at the younger level, at that demographic, we will save them in

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adulthood, saving them in adolescence.

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Dr Kent Corso: I see.

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So there's almost this Lag effect or delay effect where the problem starts to evolve

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in late childhood, early adolescence, and then it's somehow hits a tipping point

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in the late twenties and early thirties.

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Sure.

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Coronor James Whipps: And, and what I find, and maybe this is just my

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opinion is that somehow we've gotten away from focusing and teaching and

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educating our youth on resiliency, coping skills, those kinds of things that.

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As we all know, when you step out of that protected bubble of adolescence.

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Into adulthood, where everything hits you at once, you're no longer

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under that protective thumb of your parents and society and the

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school system and everything else.

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And now they're stepping into what we all know is the real world with no

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skills to be able to manage everything that's going to hit them at once.

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Like I said, we all call being an adult.

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Dr Kent Corso: Unfortunately, our time is running out for this episode,

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but I would love to have you back on to talk more about those solutions.

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I think they're both right on target and also maybe more

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achievable than people think.

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Would it be okay if

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Coronor James Whipps: we had you on again in the future?

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Absolutely.

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I'd love to do it.

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Um, and like I said, uh, a lot of what I do, what I see is from the

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outside looking in, but I think.

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That gives me an advantage to be able to help because again, I can see big

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picture, whereas the community as a whole just sees someone kill themselves.

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I think I'm better positioned to be able to sometimes answer the question

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as to there was a why behind it.

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So the

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Dr Kent Corso: what is they died by suicide.

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The why is the question you're able to answer.

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Because you have this different view where you're able to look from an

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outside perspective at multiple cases.

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And let's be honest, you also have some psychological distance from each

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case because you may not know everybody personally who ends their life.

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Coronor James Whipps: Nobody's ever going to know the exact why, because the

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person that killed themselves is the only person that's going to know that I think

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I'm, I'm able to theorize by looking at the big picture as to what made that up.

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Dr Kent Corso: Well, thanks so much for being on the podcast with us.

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Corner whips really appreciate all the work you're doing in your one minute

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can say insights into this problem.

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Take care of yourself.

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So take care of your neighbor.

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Be bold.

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Ask the hard questions because if you don't, who will?

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About the Podcast

One Minute Can Save A Life
Kent Corso, a clinical psychologist and suicidologist, introduces PROSPER—an initiative designed to reduce suicide risk through evidence-based research. Unlike traditional fear-based approaches, PROSPER focuses on long-term strategies that incorporate community values and cultural elements. The program emphasizes prevention, intervention, and postvention, encouraging community engagement and cooperation to tackle suicide as a social issue. The podcast highlights grassroots efforts and provides insights into effective suicide risk reduction.

About your host

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Kent Corso

Kent has been the principal of NCR Behavioral Health since he founded it in 2010. He is a dynamic speaker and talented teacher and consultant. Kent has often been sought out for his ability to engage his audience and make the content highly accessible and easily digestible. His approach to speaking and training uniquely adds value by provoking the intellect of his audiences. An innovative and strategic thinker, he is often referred to as a thought leader by his clients and audiences. In 2014, Kent co-founded Xcelerate Innovations, a small, agile software firm specializing in performance management software. Xcelerate Innovations developed the first and only API and native application for the digital Standard Celeration Chart. The company continues to grow due to its meticulous product development and innovative ways of solving data, analytics and informatics problems.