Number of 2020 Eagle County suicide deaths tells half a story

 

“We can’t measure the deaths that didn’t happen,” said Erin Ivie, executive director of SpeakUp ReachOut, the local suicide prevention group. “We do hear back from people we have helped, but that’s not a hard and fast number that is measurable.”

There have been 11 deaths by suicide in Eagle County to date in 2020. That matches the numbers from 2019 and represents a decrease from 2018 and 2017 when 17 and 16 such deaths occurred.

“Eleven people is still too many,” Ivie said. “But in the midst of a global pandemic when we thought we might lose many more people, we haven’t.”