Family: Technology takes on rising suicide rates

According to 2015 numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Missouri’s suicide rate per capita increased by 9.6 percent since 2013. In Kansas, the suicide rate per capita increased by 12 percent over the same period. Nationally, the rate has increased by 7.4 percent.

Arkansas rose from No. 16 to No. 10 in the latest national ranking of suicides per capita. In 2015, 577 people killed themselves in Arkansas.

“Nothing has worked” against rising suicide rates, says Bill Geiss, a Zero Suicide specialist and clinical assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “We are failing miserably.”

So now professionals are using new strategies — using technology such as the smartphone apps MY3 and myStrength to help people build proactive survival plans.

Read more about this new front against rising suicide rates in Wednesday’s Family section.

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