As Montana’s suicide rate continues to rise beyond national levels, state officials’ most recent effort has packaged crisis support to fit the age of texting.

This summer, the state launched Crisis Text Line, which gives free access to crisis counselors 24 hours every day. To access the anonymous service, Montanans can text “MT’’ to 741-741.

Since the Crisis Text Line went live in May, there have been an average of 200 conversations between Montanans asking for help and counselors each month, according to state health department officials.

“To address this ongoing crisis for our youth, mental health providers, local communities, and the state are going to have to continue to work together on a wide variety of solutions,” Gov. Steve Bullock said when he announced the line. “This new text line adds one more important tool.”

The newest effort followed the creation of a Suicide Mortality Review Team, which was authorized by Bullock and is in its second year of looking for ways to slow the state’s number of preventable deaths.

State Suicide Prevention Coordinator Karl Rosston said the recent steps have been part of a collage of efforts to address a long-avoided issue.

“People talk about how Montana ranked in the top five states for suicide the last few years, but we’ve been in the top ten for decades,” Rosston said. “What you’re seeing now is a growth of understanding that we have to talk about and look at suicide in a variety of ways to prevent it.”

In 2014, Montana had the highest suicide rate in the nation with 251 deaths, according to 2015 statistics from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. That means 23 Montanans per every 100,000 decided to end their lives. The national average is 13 suicides per 100,000.

Rosston estimated 267 Montanans died by suicide in 2015, though he said the Suicide Mortality Review Team was still investigating death certificates for final numbers.

As of July 1, the department of health recorded 117 people had committed suicide in 2016 so far.

Rosston said Montana’s Crisis Text Line isn’t intended to replace mental health services — it’s a way to get someone help in a moment of need.

“Someone may not feel comfortable calling a crisis line to speak voice-to-voice with a counselor, or walk into an office,” Rosston said.

The Crisis Text Line, a national nonprofit, has been providing free crisis intervention since 2013. Rosston said Montana leaders and health officials evaluated the statistics the nonprofit pulled in from the texts it receives from people asking for help.

According to that data, the Crisis Text Line has exchanged more than 19.6 million messages since its creation. Montana ranked first in the nation for the most calls related to suicide, even before the partnership specific to the state was finalized.

Rosston said the crisis line deals with an assortment of issues, such as anxiety, depression or family issues.

According to the crisis text data, Montana fell in the top five in the nation for the most texts related to sexual abuse, physical abuse, substance abuse and health concerns. Rosston said those pieces make someone more vulnerable to suicidal thoughts — especially when a person has already come into contact with the reality of suicide.

He said people who have lost someone to suicide have a higher risk of developing major depression and suicidal behaviors.

“Especially in Montana, which has smaller rural communities where everyone knows each other. The family survivors’ own risk of suicide is three times higher after that experience,” Rosston said. “You have to be able to talk about the issue — but in a lot of communities that just doesn’t happen and the often underlying issues remain.”

Days after the crisis text line was released, Joan Schmidt arranged her notes on suicide prevention training in an empty room in the Flathead City-County Health Department. An hour after the free public lesson was scheduled to start, the room was still empty.

“I’ve been active in suicide prevention in the Flathead Valley since 2006, and it has been discouraging to watch the number of deaths rise,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes there’s a dozen or so people who come to these trainings, sometimes there’s none.”

She said unless someone has experienced suicide, people often choose not to talk about it.

Schmidt said in 2016 so far, Flathead County has had nine people die by suicide. In 2015, the county had 15 such deaths. In 2014, 17 people decided to end their lives with 16 of them using guns.

Schmidt said a mental health disorder such as depression is a medical illness and is very treatable — but it takes talking about that disorder to recognize it and possibly save a life.

“Sometimes I feel like the effort to stop suicide in our county, our state, is just going to take a long time. We’re talking about changing a culture,” she said, looking around the empty room. “The crisis line gives people a place that feels safe to talk about their fears, without breaking the taboo of talking about suicide. But we hope that norm changes.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.