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PARKERSBURG – In an effort to prevent suicide and raise awareness of services to help, the annual Out of the Darkness suicide prevention walk was held Saturday at City Park in Parkersburg.
Dr. Heather McCarter, walk coordinator, said this was the seventh annual walk.
“We had 250 people turn out today for the walk,” she said. “Our main mission is to bring awareness to suicide prevention and to reduce the number of people who die by suicide. Every 40 seconds someone in the world dies by suicide and every 13 minutes in the United States.”
McCarter added there have been 8,000 suicides in the military compared to 4,000 combat deaths.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, 39,518 suicides were reported in the United States, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death. In West Virginia, the 2011 suicide rate was 15.1 percent and 12.5 percent in Ohio.
“There have been five suicides in Wood and surrounding counties since May,” said McCarter, who lost her sister, Jihnah McCarter Verdil, to suicide nine years ago at the age of 27.
McCarter said the 2015 walk is set for Sept. 26 at City Park.
Michelle Toman, a native of Ritchie County, lost her brother, Jamie Campbell, to suicide 21 years ago and has lectured throughout the state to help anyone prevent the suffering, the grief and the heartache of losing someone to suicide.
“I became involved in this not by choice but by chance and circumstance after my brother’s suicide,” Toman said. “I haven’t been involved in this long, I just did my first Out of the Darkness Walk in Philadelphia this year. As a result of that Heather asked me to speak.”
Toman said she shares her personal story as a way to encourage others.
“I encourage them to break the silence and bring suicide out of the darkness and into the light on their own,” she said. “The whole point of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention theme is to show someone the difference one night can make, just get through one more night.”
Toman said she has decided she will speak up.
“I just vowed to not be silent about the life suicide took away from me,” she said. “Not talking about it does not keep it from happening and talking about it does not make it happen. There is still a stigma attached and people do not know where to turn.”
When she speaks about suicide at a school, Toman said she brings Jamie’s letter jacket from Ritchie County High School and other items.
“I take it all out and that makes it real,” she said. “That makes it real to them.”
Toman said the recent suicide of Robin Williams has raised awareness and the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) has received more attention.
“There were so many people who did not know that the suicide hotline and lifeline exist,” she said.
Toman is working with West Virginia lawmakers at the Legislature on proposing Jamie’s Law, a bill to mandate 60 minutes of suicide prevention education every year in middle and high schools, as well as college campuses throughout the state, if passed.