Natrona County on nearly record-setting pace of suicides in ’24

NOTE: If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of harming themselves, please call 911. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text “WYO” to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line.

CASPER, Wyo. — Natrona County could see more suicides in 2024 than any other year on record, according to county Coroner Jim Whipps.

On Tuesday, Whipps said 24 Natrona County residents have died by suicide through the first nine months of the year, with nine suicides coming in just the past two months.

“We still have three months to go in the year, and if the last two months are any indication [for the rest of the year], we may set a record,” Whipps said. “It could be worse than the record set in 2021, when we saw 33 for the year.”

In a prior interview with Oil City News, Whipps said that while Wyoming famously has one of the worst suicide rates in the country, Natrona County’s rate is one of the highest for a localized community in the entire world.

“Even places like third-world countries — places that are in utter chaos — don’t have a suicide rate like the one here in our county,” he said.

Whipps guessed that the “Cowboy mentality” might play a role in the suicide rate.

“There’s still this idea that you should suffer alone, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and not ask anyone for help,” he said. “For the life of me, I don’t understand why that’s still something people hold on to.”

Historically, Whipps said, the most common demographic to die by suicide was middle-aged men. However, recent trends are deviating from that, he said. Increasingly, Whipps said, more younger and older people are dying by suicide, with the difference of suicide rates between the genders also shrinking.

In combating suicide, Whipps said it’s important to destigmatize it.

“We have to remove the stigma that suicide is just a mental health issue, that someone’s crazy,” he said. “Mental health may be a contributing factor in a lot of cases, but it’s those social issues that are making up the problem and getting us to this point.”

Social factors that Whipps said are the root cause of suicide ideation include social isolation, financial insecurity, low access to support services, bullying, trauma, abuse and neglect.

Casper-Natrona County Health Department Executive Director Anna Kinder agreed, using an analogy to explain why tackling the root causes is the most beneficial approach.

“A parable goes that people saw a bunch of children floating downstream in a river, and they didn’t know why until a person went upstream to see why all the kids were falling in,” Kinder said.

For those battling suicidal ideation, the 988 lifeline is a 24/7 service that provides people with access to trained crisis counselors. However, the lifeline is for more than just those people: According to Kinder, the lifeline can be utilized by people experiencing any sort of mental health or substance abuse crisis, and can also be utilized by those worried about someone else.