Maine mom advocates prevention of suicide

WASHINGTON – A Farmington, Maine, mother appeared in front of a Senate committee Friday to urge that suicide awareness and prevention programs be funded in schools across the country.

Grace Eaton, a middle school education teacher, said she hopes that such programs would help reduce what is now one of the leading causes of death among U.S. teen-agers, and the second-greatest cause of death of Maine youths between the ages of 15 and 24.

Eaton said she knows firsthand how hard it is for families and friends to interpret the warning signs that a teen may be considering suicide. Her own son Glen Gilchrist took his life in 1997 while a 17-year-old senior at Mt. Blue High School.

“He didn’t ask for help,” she said. “He chose to die.”

Her son appeared to have all the makings of a wonderful future. He was an honor roll student, one of the top 10 cross-country runners and skiers in the state, and he had planned to attend Colby College.

Eaton and her family were simply unaware of the “deep depression” he was feeling, she said. “If I had been more aware of the warning signs, it is possible that I might have been able to assist my son,” she said.

Eaton was joined by other witnesses, some of whom had experienced similar losses of a son or a close friend, with panel members of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families.

Surgeon General David Satcher, who also testified, agreed that most suicides would be preventable if family members and friends paid attention to the warning signs.

“Very few people commit suicide because of a single event in their lives,” he said. “It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of suicides are associated with a history of mental illness, usually depression – and that’s a treatable disease.” When someone appears in trouble, Satcher urged that uneasy feelings about privacy be put aside.

Recalling one story of a potential suicide that was stopped after a friend intervened, Satcher was told, “I would rather lose a friendship than a friend.”

During the hearing, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the committee, said suicide should be considered a serious health problem, especially among teen-agers.

Citing statistics from a 1997 Centers for Disease Control study, Collins said that one out of five high school students nationwide had seriously considered suicide. In Maine, the numbers were more disturbing – one out of four students had contemplated taking their own lives.

“This suffering is all the more acute when the individual who has committed suicide is a young person,” Collins said, “The impact of a suicide on friends, family and the entire community is both devastating and long-lasting.”

Collins praised Eaton’s efforts to educate teachers and the public on suicide prevention and for her assistance in writing “The Hope Book – An Educator’s Guide to Suicide Prevention.” Eaton also has worked with the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention program, which sponsors the Web site http://www.state.me.us/suicide.

There is no legislation addressing how to prevent teen suicide, but several witnesses and committee members urged that mental health be given greater support and funding.

Committee member Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., spoke of bipartisan legislation he has introduced that would prohibit group health plans from treating mental health benefits differently than coverage of medical and surgical benefits. Collins supports the legislation.