Expert provides tips on how to spot possible suicide

Jeannie Walter has had a rough life.

As a child, she was held for several years by a man who had kidnapped her and frequently beat and raped her.

After an especially unpleasant encounter with the man she took a razor and slashed her arm five times.

"I don't think I wanted to die, I just wanted to escape," she said.

As an adult, two of her children committed suicide.

Now, as president of the Lewistown chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, she said she is dedicating her life to educating people on how to fight suicide.

"Once people commit suicide, they are gone. All we can do is learn what we can do before the suicide," she told a group at the Havre-Hill County Library Saturday afternoon.

Her appearance in Havre was sponsored by the Havre NAMI chapter.

Walter instructed the crowd about the "Question, Persuade, Refer," or QPR, method of fighting suicide.

Walter and a video she showed explained how to spot hints that people might be contemplating suicide.

QPR, she said, can be as effective as CPR is in treating heart attacks, she said.

Sudden changes in mood may indicate that people are considering killing themselves, she said.

People who have traditionally been happy-go-lucky and all of a sudden become somber should be considered at risk, she said.

People who have been active in a church all their life and sudden lose interest might be possible suicide risks, she said.

And, conversely, people who have never been active in a church and suddenly become interested in religion might be considering suicide, she said.

People of all ages commit suicide, she said, but in introducing Walter, Havre NAMI President Crystal Laufer said Havre has the highest suicide rate in Montana, which has the highest rate in the nation. In Havre, she said, younger people are usually the victims of suicide.

"We have a lot of teenagers commit suicide," she said. "And a lot of college students."

And on Indian reservations, there is a suicide epidemic, Walter said.

"It's just awful," she said.

When people have a suspicion that their friend might be considering suicide, they should act promptly.

"If you are in doubt, don't wait," she said. If people are reluctant to talk about it, "be persistent," she added.

Once they start to answer, she said, "let them do the talking."

She said a direct form of questioning is best, such as "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" or  "Are you suicidal?"

She said not to ask "You're not thinking about committing suicide, are you?"

That will give the person the idea that you want them to say no, Walter said. They will comply and keep their secrets to themselves.

If people don't feel they can ask such a question," she said, they should ask a friend to perform the duty.

Walter became emotional when she talked about the death of her two children to suicide.

When her daughter was in high school, she came home from school one day, went to a barn on their property and hanged herself.

She had had some depression issues and had been bullied in school, she said, but there had never been any signs she was considering killing herself.

She broke into tears as she talked about the incident.

"I tried to revive her, but I couldn't," she said. "Rigor mortis had set in."

Her oldest son had serious mental problems that had interrupted his career, she said, but he found his niche in repairing machines.

He turned himself into the Fergus County Jail on a charge of driving without a license.

Locked up and deprived of medicine for his severe diabetes and his mental conditions, her son committed suicide, she said.

That convinced her to dedicate her life to fighting suicide. She started by suing Fergus County for their failure to provide proper care to her diabetic, mentally ill son.

Today, she teaches deputies and corrections officers on how to deal with mentally ill prisoners.