Listen, be vigilant, work together and join efforts underway to address suicide, a national public health problem that has become a local crisis.

These were the main takeaways from a town hall meeting held Wednesday to begin a community-wide discussion on suicide prevention efforts in response to a suicide cluster among 14- to 19-year-olds in Kalispell and Bigfork high schools and communities.

A suicide cluster means there are more suicides/suicide attempts than expected statistically within a short duration of time and location.

“Resilience and recovery is possible. Suicide is preventable, but it will require the entire community,” said psychologist and national expert on youth suicide and self-injury Scott Poland, who was invited to give opening remarks.

Poland, who is the director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, was recently invited to Kalispell to present to the community and provide training to local school staff, students and medical providers.

The town hall meeting, hosted by Northwest Montana United Way, featured a panel of mental health professionals, educators and law enforcement from the Nate Chute Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Tamarack Grief Resource Center, Undaunted Family Connections, Kalispell Public Schools and Kalispell Police Department, several of whom, spoke to being survivors of suicide loss.

“The challenge for the community is for everybody to work together,” In a simple word ... it takes a village. And that village means school leaders, community leaders, law enforcement, clergy, medical community, mental health community, parents and survivor groups all working together,” Poland said.

Kalispell Public Schools superintendent Micah Hill expressed the pressures the district and schools have been under and its limitations, such as staffing and funding.

“One school counselor at Flathead High School has 400 students on their caseload,” Hill said. “Being responsible for the mental health of 3,000 high school students is incredible. One of my frustrations is that when we have a tragedy, whether it’s by suicide or a car accident or any other loss, we’re really quick to come together for a couple of weeks and we’re hurt. We’re in a grief period and a couple of weeks later it gets shuffled to the bottom of the deck.”

Tackling this crisis requires constant vigilance, according to Poland.

“At the simplest level we have to talk about it more,” Poland said. “We have to talk about suicide prevention in our homes, our schools, the workplace as well as our places of worship and we all have to get much more comfortable asking direct questions.”

While suicide is complex and there is no single cause, mental health conditions are a factor, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

“We can’t keep pretending like just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not important,” said panelist Alison Schmaltz, chairwoman of Flathead Valley Out of the Darkness Walk, which is hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Schmaltz, who is a retired teacher and school counselor, said the most recent walk held Sept. 26, brought a record number of people.

“We had an outpouring that broke my heart yet brought me hope … what I saw was all these hurting people saying, help me find a way to connect to make a difference, raise awareness, share the resources, just let people know we care,” Schmaltz said.

“I want to encourage every one of you to say, ‘I don’t want to deny this anymore. I want my family to know that I’m going to be the one that if you have a mental health problem I want to help you reach out, find the professional care you need,’” she said.

WEDNESDAY’S TOWN hall brought out a sizable audience made up of parents, grandparents, retired and current educators, church members, therapists and other community members.

Before digging into the serious topic of suicide, panelists Aubrey Howell, Flathead program manager for postvention peer support services at Tamarack Grief Resource Center, and Kacy Howard, executive director of the Nate Chute Foundation, told audience members to talk to someone after the meeting and take time out for for self-care.

“It’s never easy and the last several weeks and months have been especially challenging,” Howard said.

Some audience members suggested teaching suicide prevention at an earlier age than seventh grade, which is currently done in many schools around the valley. Another audience member spoke about restricting the use of cellphones in high schools, to which the discussion briefly turned to the role families and schools play in teaching responsible use of devices.

Panelist Leanna Troesh, executive director of Undaunted Family Connections, suggested organizing technology workshops geared to parents and grandparents, bringing in speakers to present on how devices affect brain development, or a pact between parents to limit children’s screen time at home.

Another audience member said she, and those she was in attendance with, were therapists wanting to get feedback on the possibility of serving as on-site providers, in addition to the school's mental health staff, in order to increase student access to services. Howard advised her to connect with a local medical provider involved with school-based clinics.

Hill also provided information as to what Kalispell Public Schools has in place, the difficulty in filling positions this year and complications in funding changes for its Comprehensive School and Community Treatment program, which provides mental and behavioral health services to the district’s neediest children.

“We work with Logan Health and Intermountain to put therapists in our schools,” he said. “This year, we started off the year five short. They couldn’t find people to do the work anymore — and they’re aging out and retiring — and it’s really hard to bring someone in for $35,000-$40,000 into this valley with cost of living and a lot of other factors that go into that.”

Other audience members proposed bringing yoga into the school day to teach about the mind-body connection, while another wanted to know whether church groups could be on campus.

Hill said there are groups such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the high schools, and that people affiliated with churches can come on campus, however schools have to be careful they do not promote or hinder religion or religious practices.

One audience member voiced an urgency for people to support and get involved with sustainable, evidence-based programs and policies, versus ones based on anecdotes. She suggested people get involved in local mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters or Boys and Girls Club.

SCHMALTZ GAVE some suggestions such as getting Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) suicide prevention training.

“I highly recommend that every person in this room decides in the next year what you're going to do and use QPR. You’re going to do mental health first aid. You’re going to get involved and find out what that toolkit is and the part you can play in making a difference in your schools. That’s a place to start right there,” Schmaltz said.

Panelists agreed this is a critical moment to “listen more and talk less.”

Howard said when a child says something distressing, using her children as an example, she asks if they need something from her or if they just want her to know.

“Almost 100% it’s just ‘mom I wanted you to know,’’' Howard said.

In closing the town hall, which spanned roughly two and a half hours, Northwest Montana United Way Executive Director Roxanna Parker read a letter from a local 16-year-old, paraphrasing:

“One of my friends committed suicide and I think about it every day sitting around the lunch table when we’re laughing about silly things. I wish she would have reached out to me. I wish I would have listened and I would have known what to do. So my question to all of you is why should we trust you and how can you show us it’s OK for us to trust you and not to be scared.”

Parker added the importance of regaining connections lost in the community due to the isolating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We need hope. Our young people need hope. Our community members need hope. The last 18 months during the pandemic have been very difficult. We lost a lot of connections with each other. We need relationships. We need a safe place. We need to be vulnerable,” Parker said.

It may take small steps at first — a game night or after-school group — but Parker reiterated organizations need active participants.

“As community members I’m going to be asking you to step up and help out and parents help out,” she said. “Find the thing you are passionate about, the organization, the school, the police department whatever that is there is a way to connect.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for the Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 406-758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com

Get help

If you’re feeling suicidal, or know someone who is, talk to someone. Help is available.

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the TrevorLifeline for LGBTQ+ individuals at 1-866-488-7386, or Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1.

Text “start” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741, the Trevor Lifeline at 678-678, or Veterans Crisis Line at 838255.

If you don’t like using the phone, or don’t have access to one, connect to the Lifeline Crisis Chat at crisischat.org, the TrevorLifeline chat at www.thetrevorproject.org or Veterans Crisis Line at www.veteranscrisisline.net.