Laredo committee cites rise in suicide contacts, broadens 988 outreach and trainings

The Laredo Public Health Department’s suicide-prevention committee reported a rise in local suicide-related contacts and outlined expanded outreach and training efforts at its July 28 meeting.

The committee heard incident and call-center data covering Jan. 1 through July 28 and discussed steps to expand local crisis response and community awareness ahead of a September campaign. The committee said it has a new data-sharing arrangement with Integral Care to track 988 routed and answered calls for the region and described several planned trainings and outreach efforts focused on barbershops, hair salons and first-line community contacts.

Committee members opened with a summary of local incident figures. “We have attempted suicides, 57 for 20 25. Attempted suicide reports, a hundred and 16. Suicide resulting in death, 13,” said Sergeant Palos, who presented the incident summary and heat maps showing clusters in several parts of the city. Palos also gave the committee the on-scene breakdowns for several recent attempted-suicide calls, noting ages, methods and whether subjects had prior inpatient histories.

The group reviewed 988 call-center metrics provided by Integral Care under a new informal data-sharing agreement. The committee’s presenter…