Suicide ends lives, but it also creates new beginnings for those who attempt to kill themselves but live, and those who must find the will to go on without lost loved ones.
Jessie Bekker
Reporter: Health
Email: jbekker@reviewjournal.com
Phone: (702) 380-4563
X: @jessiebekks
Jessie Bekker joined the Review-Journal in 2017 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, she left the snowy Midwest for the desert heat to cover health.
WINNEMUCCA A pile of suicide notes written by a young man in 2016 forced District Judge Michael Montero to the realization that rural Humboldt County had a problem it wasn’t addressing. He remembers reading the notes a sheriff’s deputy handed to him and wondering whether family and friends of the young man could have intervened. […]
Data from the state show that residents of rural Nevada take their lives at a rate 43 percent higher than in Clark County and 56 percent higher than in Washoe County.
Difficulties determining the intent of the deceased, a lack of trained medical examiners and possibly the stigma surrounding death at one’s own hand likely reduce the number of reported suicides.
The legislation provides for awareness training for families of at-risk individuals and increased suicide prevention efforts in public schools.
Research shows access to firearms increases suicide risk. But that doesn’t mean owning guns causes suicide. Instead, it means people having access to guns in their most vulnerable moments can prove fatal.
Betting leads some problem gamblers to other risk factors for suicide, like financial and relationship problems. At least 20 percent have considered ending their lives at some point, the National Council on Problem Gambling says.
Experts on suicide have compiled guidelines on what you should do if you or a friend or loved one are having thoughts of suicide and where to turn for help.
For years Nevada had the highest suicide rate in the nation before it began to fall in the rankings. The Silver State isn’t getting an upper hand on the problem; the rest of the U.S. has been catching up.
It’s called the “suicide belt” – a swath of Western states that extends from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest, then leaps over western Canada to Alaska. If you look only at the lower portion, Nevada sits about where the buckle would be. Researchers have been aware for decades that residents of certain Western states […]
Health officials have decided against shuttering an Amargosa Valley boarding school after a visit to the facility showed that steps were being taken to ensure students’ safety.
Assemblyman Michael Sprinkle, D-Sparks, plans to introduce a bill this legislative session that would create a Medicaid buy-in option for all Nevadans, after a similar proposal passed in the state Assembly and Senate but fell at the hands of former Gov. Brian Sandoval in 2017.
Opinions differ on whether the half ton of weapons-grade plutonium secretly shipped by the U.S. government to the Nevada National Security Site could impact residents’ health and the environment.
As long as Nevadans and visitors are immunized against the disease, it’s unlikely a current outbreak in Washington state could take hold in the Silver State, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
Dwayne Murray, whose wife LaQuinta, died in Centennial Hills Hospital in 2013, says he hopes his five-year legal battle leads to fixes in a “flawed” system that enabled doctors to give her excessive doses of an anti-inflammatory drug.