Colorado has the 6th highest rate of suicide in the nation. 867 Coloradans died by suicide in 2010 – there were 447 in the seven county metro area. The largest number of suicides is among men of working age (35 to 54). These men are sons, husbands, fathers, wage earners.  Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people (ages 10 to 34) who then do not have the opportunity to live out their potential. Men over age 75 are at highest risk.  A death by suicide affects the entire community; it has a profound impact on family and friends, and the workplace, and results in an untold loss of productivity.

House Bill 1140, sponsored by Representative Matt Jones and Senator Linda Newell, will help prevent suicide. If passed, it will ask hospitals to provide information about suicide (risk factors, signs, and sources of help) to family and friends to whom a suicidal person is being discharged. The State Office of Suicide Prevention would work with hospitals to develop appropriate materials. Suicidal persons who go to the hospital are often those who have attempted suicide, and these individuals are at serious risk for eventually dying of suicide. Any effort that gets information into the hands of those closest to suicidal persons will help save lives.

Our son might still be alive if we had been informed that he was at very high risk because of a number of factors. He had just been discharged from the hospital, but we received no information about these risks. If we had known these things, we would never have left him alone the day he died by his own hand.

Susan Marine
Board, Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado
Boulder

Much has been made over the Obama administration’s rule that would require health insurance plans – including those offered by Roman Catholic institutions – to provide free birth control to female employees.  The hue and cry has accused the president of an unconscionable affront to religious freedom and as an enemy of morality.  A couple questions arise.

Since when did the US Conference of Catholic Bishops become the arbiters of conscience and morality?  Surely not in the wake of the scandals that have rocked the church over the last decade, and with which Catholic bishops are criminally implicated.

And while contraception as a factor in women’s health has been duly reported, why is there no discussion, from either the left or the right, about birth control as a factor in the health of the planet?  Is it really so unseemly to mention that the earth is groaning under the weight of 7 billion human beings?

To quote Boulder’s inestimable Al Bartlett: “Can you think of any problem, in any area of human endeavor, on any scale, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population?”

As we move forward into the 21st Century, perhaps it is time we develop some ethical measures and standards of morality that account for the welfare of planet earth – the very ground from which all our freedoms arise.

Tim Hogan
Boulder

The hospital had a psychiatrist come down to the ER to talk with Jesse and with us prior to releasing him. We assured him that we would follow up with a counselor and psychiatrist. In the moment, Jesse assured us that he had made a mistake and that he would never do such a thing again. But at no time did the hospital staff, or any mental health professional, ever inform us that this “suicide gesture” meant an increase in Jesse’s risk for a completed suicide in the future. We were never told that “a nonfatal suicide attempt is the strongest known clinical predictor of eventual suicide.” (American Journal of Psychiatry, March, 2004.)

I do not know if this information would have meant the difference in saving Jesse’s life. However, it might have influenced the choices Jesse and we made in moving forward. This is why we support House Bill 1140, sponsored by Rep. Matt Jones, asking hospitals to provide information about suicide (risk factors, danger signs, and sources of help) to family members or friends to whom a suicidal person is being discharged. HB 1140 is scheduled to be heard in the House Health and Environment Committee on Thursday, February 16. Please help this bill to move forward by contacting the Health and Environment Committee at 303-866-4789 and asking them to vote “yes” on HB1140

There is no way to bring our Jesse back, but perhaps HB1140 will be the difference for someone else’s son or daughter, sister or brother, mother, father, Aunt, Uncle or friend.

Sincerely,

Andi Jason & David Simon
Boulder

Sincerely,

David R. Guilinger
Boulder

Today we went swimming with our baby at the East Boulder Rec. Center. We were horrified when we came out and heard gunshots, and saw a goose falling from the sky. Then we stood by as a goose was strangled before our eyes, and the rest of the flock sat paralyzed in fear. We did not know it was possible, legal, or acceptable for people to be firing guns and killing geese within a short earshot and eyeshot of a major City of Boulder facility (in the field to the north) and right in our peaceful neighborhood.

What can be done to protect the citizens from being exposed this tragic and unsafe practice? Private property rights and gun rights aren’t the only “rights” that need to be respected. We citizens have a right to peace and tranquility, too.

Sincerely,

Steve Jones
Boulder

George Narcavage
Boulder

Jack Zeller
Lafayette

The rents on most of these units matches or exceeds the monthly income for single adults living at the poverty line in a state that saw almost a five percent jump in poverty levels over the past decade. I can’t imagine that these students are paying for these high-end properties themselves and treating these living arrangements as though they are the status quo for CU students only serves to strengthen the University’s reputation as a playground for wealthy out-of-staters.

I can’t blame the students for wanting to live in these cushy apartments—what 19-year-old wouldn’t appreciate a kegerator, four balconies and a rooftop hot tub—but I do question the editorial decision to use five columns on this sort of frivolity.

John K. Wilson
Boulder

We need to make a living, but I believe that there are many reasons for working that are more important than making the maximum wage; such as:

a)  excelling at what we do
b)  enjoying what we do
c)  the comradeship of our co-workers
d)  the pleasure of a job well done

If a person’s highest priority is making the maximum amount of money, then they will never be satisfied.  This is not the kind of person that you wish to employ, whether it be the C. U. administrator or the C. U. janitor.

David Levin
Eldorado Springs