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Resident urges action on suicide prevention, highlights 741741 crisis text line for youth
Summary
A Brookings resident told commissioners Curry County’s suicide rate is high and urged support for the 741741 crisis text line, noting that 76% of its users are youth and that it includes AI-enabled triage features for emoji-heavy messages.
At the Sept. 16 Curry County meeting, Brookings resident Gordon Clay urged commissioners to make suicide prevention a higher priority and highlighted local suicide statistics and crisis-text resources.
Clay said that as of July the county had recorded five suicides this year and that, on a per-capita basis, Curry County ranked fifth in the state for suicide. He described the national crisis text line 741741 as a resource that has assisted millions of people and said it offers AI-enabled triage that can help identify high-risk messages, noting that research shows many youths use emojis in crisis messages.
Clay encouraged the county and community groups to increase outreach and awareness of the 741741 number and other crisis resources. “We have to support our kids. We have to support our adults that are texters and, reduce suicide in this county,” he said.
Why it matters: County leaders and community groups track suicide and crisis resources as part of public-health and prevention efforts. Clay urged outreach to families and organizations to reduce suicides in the county.
Details: Clay provided listeners with research references and a web link (printed on the handout he shared) about crisis-text services and their effectiveness for youth, and he urged the county to keep prevention on the "front burner." No formal county action was taken at the Sept. 16 meeting on this topic.
