Bucks County suicide task force presents PSA, reports preliminary rise to about 100 deaths in 2024

The Bucks County Board of Commissioners heard a presentation Jan. 8 from the county’s Suicide Prevention Task Force that included a public‑service announcement and preliminary county data indicating about 100 suicide deaths in 2024.

Commissioner Diane Ellis Marceglie introduced the presentation and said the county had seen an increase in numbers. Keeley Rosenthal of the county’s Behavioral Health Department and Tom Rosowski, a co‑chair of the Suicide Prevention Task Force, described outreach plans and the PSA the task force hopes to distribute.

Rosowski explained the local context and scale: “Suicide here in The United States, we lose close to 50,000 individuals a year. And here in Bucks County with our preliminary numbers, so it could slightly increase this past year in 2024, we've lost 100 individuals this past year. That's basically 2 a week.”

Keeley Rosenthal urged community members to maintain social connections and to check in with people who seem “off.” “This message is a message that as a community, it's something that we all could do,” she said. The presentation emphasized that small acts of contact — a phone call, text or brief conversation — can reduce risk and that learning to check in on oneself is important.

Presenters directed residents to use the 988 helpline for crisis support and to visit holdonyoumatter.com for local information.

Why it matters: County officials said they plan to elevate suicide prevention as a higher priority in 2025 and to distribute the task force’s PSA to increase awareness of warning signs, the 988 crisis line and local services.