Westmoreland County launches review team with goal to reduce suicides

Heather McLean knows even one loss from suicide is too many.

Because of that, she and a group of Westmoreland County leaders have started to explore the root causes and common themes that could improve treatment and prevention to reduce the number of suicides in the county, which reached a record high in 2022.

“We have to find more ways to intervene and to help people,” said McLean, who chairs Westmoreland County’s Suicide Fatality Review Team, which convened its initial organizing meeting in June.

The group, which includes public officials and members of the county’s nonprofit community, is seeking to understand the warning signs that lead to suicide and make recommendations as to how future intervention and treatment can be used to reduce loss of life.

McLean works as an outreach coordinator for Mental Health of America and heads that agency’s Ray of Hope program. She also works with the county coroner’s Loss Team, which offers support to families impacted by suicide.

The newly formed suicide review team will examine individual cases to explore potential common themes and search for missed warning signs that could assist in the prevention of suicides.

“We will look at a person’s life and what we’re looking for is missed opportunities where someone could have intervened at some time to save that person’s life,” McLean said. “I know one case where there was someone who tried to get into treatment. He called but couldn’t get there, so they gave away his spot. He told his sister they didn’t want him, and then he committed suicide.”

Similar committees have formed around the country, but officials said they believe Westmoreland County’s is one of just two in Pennsylvania.

Reviews in other jurisdictions have made significant findings to assist prevention efforts, such as a link between suicide victims and animal shelters. McLean pointed to one example where she said studies suggest suicide victims have taken steps to ensure their pets’ safety before taking their life.

It’s a warning sign that mental health professionals will look for as part of future prevention efforts, she said.

According to a report issued this year by Coroner Tim Carson, there were 57 deaths by suicide last year in Westmoreland County. The coroner reported 60 suicides in 2023 and a record high of 62 the year prior.

Nearly 79% of last year’s suicides were men.

Carson said that as of July 1, the county recorded 32 suicides this year and is on pace by year’s end to be the highest number in decades.

“These numbers are alarming,” Carson said. “About 50% of people don’t leave a note, so in about half the cases we don’t really know why. If you can prevent someone from taking a life or help a family grasp what happened, that is the biggest thing.”

The review team will look a variety of suicide cases, focusing specifically on men and veterans, McLean said.

The group includes representatives from the county government, its human services staff as well as public safety officials, the Area Agency on Aging and nonprofit organizations.

Westmoreland County Human Services Director Rob Hamilton said he expects the committee to generate a series of recommendations to better focus on treatment efforts and prevention.

“We want to go back and look at our approach and see what we can do better and what the alternatives are. We also want to see how we can get better involvement from law enforcement and other agencies,” Hamilton said. “We’re not looking to assign fault or find that somebody did something wrong. We know a lot of times there is commonality.”

The committee is scheduled to review its first set of cases in July.

County Commissioner Doug Chew said the group’s work is essential to improve the county’s ability to respond to resident needs.

“This is how we can get data to the community and use that data in our human services program,” Chew said.