According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004 suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, with 32,439 lives lost due to self-inflicted injuries.

From 1999-2003, 2,588 people in Kentucky committed suicide, ranking Kentucky 16th in the nation for suicide. Logan County made up 16 of these lives.

The Barren River District Health Department is committed to making our community a healthier and safer place to live. Every month the health department looks at data collected from the emergency rooms at local hospitals about what types of unintentional injuries affect the people living in our district.

Unfortunately, included in this data are undetermined injuries as to accidental or purposely inflicted.

In the unintentional injury category of Injury Undetermined Whether Accidentally or Purposely Inflicted, Logan County reported a total of 69 injuries. The age group with the largest number of injuries was the 30-39 year olds, totaling 22 injuries. The sub-category of Poisoning by Solid or Liquid Substance had the greatest number of reported injuries with 59 cases.

So now that we know that this problem affects Logan County, what do we do about prevention? The first thing is to recognize the warning signs. The Jason Foundation gives the following warning signs of possible suicide attempts: