Suicide Prevention Efforts Started with a Police Report

Editor's note: This article is the first in a series about recent efforts by police, city and school district officials and concerned residents to help teens and adults affected by depression.

Concerns over teen suicide and depression in Farmington Hills started last spring, with a major incident report Chief Chuck Nebus regularly delivers to city officials.

"We had 13 young people, teenagers, in a month's period of time who threatened or actually made overt attempts to commit suicide," Nebus said. "That caught us as an unusually high number."

Nebus also noted the problem isn't confined to younger people. He said Hills officers responded to 235 calls last year that resulted in mental health commitments.

"The majority of those were people who were threatening to act or who made (suicide) attempts," he said.

The news startled city officials, particularly council members Nancy Bates, Ken Massey and Randy Bruce, who started meeting informally to talk about what could be done to help.

Seeking a communitywide response, the three brought a resolution to the City Council on Feb. 28.

"Lake Orion had seven completed suicides happen in one year," Bates said at that meeting. "We can't wait until we have something like that."

She has since gone to the Commission on Children, Youth and Families (CYF) and Farmington City Council members, asking for their support. Based on the same information from Nebus, CYF was already planning a May 27 town hall on depression.

Nebus said the Police Department is working to provide more accurate numbers about how many people—particularly young people—are affected.

This year, for the first time, the department is separating mental health commitment numbers specifically for teenagers. Previously, Nebus said, ages 17 and over were counted with adults. But good data is not easy to find.

"Even Oakland County Mental Health has trouble tracking data," he said. "We take people to so many different treatment centers, the numbers are hard to get a grip on."

Best guess, Nebus said, is that most mental health issues are related to the loss of a job, foreclosure, a family breakup or just "the stress that's involved with life today."

The teens whose problems came to light last spring, he said, had nothing in common except that the majority were new to the community. They came from all over the city and were of different enthnicities and ages.

If there is a positive side, it's that parents are calling police for assistance, "and that is a good thing. When families have confidence enough to call us, that's a good feeling," Nebus said.

When officers respond, they work with families to get the person in trouble to a place where they can be treated. And Nebus said once teens get that assistance, police generally don't see them again. That's not the case with adults, who may have medication but can't afford, or refuse, to take it as directed.

"It seems like all too often, we have committed an adult who just got out of a treatment center," he said.

That's a problem not just for the people involved but for community and officer safety as well. In recent cases, a man threatened to kill his employer and co-workers, and another man fired shots before he was taken into custody. Also, a commitment can tie up hours of an officer's time, which is especially difficult now that budgets are tight.

In response to the increasing number of mental health calls, Nebus said, the department is assessing everything officers do in those cases and reviewing policies and training. Officials are also working with the 47th District Court to help identify mental health issues in the course of pretrial interviews.

Nebus said the department will be involved with community groups to help create public information and literature for young people. He is concerned, he said, about "striking a healthy balance" in the way that information is disseminated.

CYF member Karen Bolsen, who is a Farmington school board member, also wondered at the March 4 commission meeting about the proper approach, as the group's town hall on depression was discussed.

"Is there any consideration given to are we creating copycats?" she asked, referring to concerns about teens and suicide.

Commission members organizing the event said their focus will not be on suicide but more toward coping with stress and depression.

Part II: Officials and community members come together Tuesday at 7 p.m. to talk about teens and suicide.