Yakima Coroner Reports 23 Suicide Deaths in 2023, Year Not Over

Suicides are on the rise in the U.S and in Yakima County. No one has any answer as to why because the reasons for suicide vary in so many ways say the experts.

NATIONAL SUICIDE AWARENESS

September is National Suicide Awareness month. Health officials say it's a major mental health crisis that started to show increases in 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Numbers from 2022 show suicides rose 2.6% in the United States.

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INCREASING NUMBERS

That rise after a 5% increase in suicides in 2021. Since then officials from the Centers for Disease Control say suicides have been on the upward trend. Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 49,449 people died of suicides last year nationwide.

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PEOPLE DYING IN YAKIMA

Yakima County Coroner Marshall Slight says in 2024, 43 people died from suicides. So far this year 23 people have died and the year isn't yet over.
The coroner's office is also dealing with a large number of overdose deaths.

NUMBERS DROPPING THIS YEAR?

So far this year the number stands at 77 suspected or confirmed overdose deaths. The number was 67 last month. A record 146 people died of overdoses in 2024.
Slight says at least 70% of the deaths are directly connected to the deadly drug fentanyl. Slight says he expects overdose numbers to drop this year and in the years ahead because the southern border is now closed cutting the amount of deadly fentanyl entering the United States.