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.

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.

PEOPLE DYING IN YAKIMA

Yakima County Coroner Marshall Slight says in 2024, 43 peo