In memory of Greg Wells

Yesterday I was one of 200 people who gathered to walk in memory of friends and family who died by suicide.  Those walking were part of a community walk in my small city called "Out of the Darkness" that was organized by The American Society for Suicide Prevention.   Yesterday’s walk was spearheaded by Rebecca Wells in loving memory of her beloved husband, Greg Wells.  On March 9, 2006, Greg took his life after a private eight year struggle with severe depression. Stay with this diary to the end, to learn about important legislation pending in Congress to provide better Mental Health care and help prevent suicide; and ways you can reduce suicide as a public health problem.  

"He would get so sad. He would sit there and cry and say 'Everything in my life is fine. I don't know why I feel this way,'" Rebecca Wells said.

"Anyone who thinks suicide is a choice and depression isn't real hasn't lived with someone who has it."

Greg Wells died at 47. The average age of a man who committed suicide in West Virginia in 2005 was 48.9. Depression, overwhelmingly, is the leading cause of suicide in West Virginia and the nation.

Greg Wells tried medications and mixtures of medications. He had 13 electroshock therapy treatments that required general anesthesia and 4 a.m. trips to Charleston (an hour from Huntington).

"He hid it well," his widow said. "He didn't want the people he worked with to know, he didn't want our children to know and that put a lot of extra pressure on him, I think. He begged me not to tell people what was wrong with him. It was not an easy time. link

Organizations like the American Society for Suicide Prevention seek to prevent suicide by discussing openly the problems of depression.  They provide a national hotline [phone]-TALK (8255).  They offer support for survivors.   They seek funding for additional research to prevent suicide as well as community programs to educate citizens about risk factors.  
The Suicide Prevention Action Network USA (SPAN USA), is a grassroots advocacy organization working to advance public policies that prevent suicide.  SPAN has pushed for more political action for public health support for mental health care and addiction services as well as more funding for research and prevention programs.  

More than 30,000 Americans die at their own hands each year.  Suicide is a major public health problem and the 11th leading cause of death in the USA. The secrecy, shame and stigma attached to suicide is a barrier to recognition of the cost of suicide to survivors and their families and to society as a whole.  

Recently the actor Owen Wilson made a suicide attempt which fortunately was prevented.  Newspapers and television struggled with reporting this information.  Yet some 650,000 people a year seek emergency room treatment after a suicide attempt.  This is not a rare problem.  Yet the media kept observing how well Mr. Wilson’s life was going and how much he had to live for, as though that could explain the disordered thinking patterns associated with suicide and depression.

There is something we can do today, politically, to provide better mental health care in our country and to ultimately prevent suicide.

Please write or call and urge our senators and representatives to support the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007.  

Paul Wellstone championed legislation to end discrimination against people suffering from mental illness and addiction and provide parity for insurance coverage of mental illness.  After Wellstone’s death, a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives introduced legislation named in his honor which would have insurance companies treat mental illness the same as physical illness.  The legislation passed the United States Senate unanimously September 18, 2007 (after being bottled up in Committee for years by the Republican led Congress).  The legislation requires that group health plans of employers of 50 or more employees which offer mental health coverage provide the same level of benefits for mental conditions as they do for other medical conditions. President Bush has promised to sign this legislation.

The House Ways and Means health subcommittee approved the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act" September 19, 2007.  The bill now goes to the full committee for a vote.  After such a vote it must then have another vote if the legislation isn't identical (which it doesn't seem to be- the House bill seems more comprehensive).

Write to your Senators and Congresspersons and urge their support for Mental Health Parity and Suicide Prevention.  

You might also thank your Senators as well if they voted for the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act (H.R. 327) in September, 2007.  This bill was named in memory of Joshua Omvig, an Iowa veteran who committed suicide after returning from Iraq.  Joshua Omvig never sought help for his PTSD problems, and this bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop a comprehensive program to regularly screen and monitor all veterans for risk factors of suicide. The Omvig bill is also intended to destigmatize mental health care.  In addition, this legislation provides 24-hour mental health care for veterans who are found to be at risk for suicide and education and training for all VA staff, contractors, and medical personnel who have interaction with veterans.   The House of Representatives needs to vote on the version approved by the Senate for this bill to be completed.

In addition to political action, you can personally take some action.  Instead of saying people "commit suicide" consider saying they died from suicide.  One local psychiatrist suggested this at the walk yesterday.  He commented that the stigma of suicide was enormous and that the shame factor was keeping people from seeking help and leaving families and friends to suffer in isolation.  People commit crimes and suicide is not just a crime.  Our psychiatrist said once women were ashamed to speak of breast cancer, and now there is research and openness about this disease.  Once more people died of HIV than suicide, and now, because of research and public health information to prevent the spread of HIV, this is no longer the case.    

In the end, Wells knows there was nothing more she could have done for her husband. She supported him, he got good medical care and tried what seemed like every combination of medication and therapy.

"Sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have said something different or done something different, but I know I couldn't have," she said.

What she hopes for now is that people will talk to each other and learn what to do if a loved one is struggling and where to turn for help. More than anything, she wants the stigma for survivors to be gone.

"Until we change the way people view it, it will be difficult. But why should it be any different, any more embarrassing, than a death from cancer or any other cause of death," she said. link