Deaths of Despair – Suicide in Rural Washington?

What are “deaths of despair”?  Drugs, alcohol, and suicide.

And “despair”? By definition, mental health is the proximate cause. Behind the mental health, though, lies real economic decline, relative loss of economic position, and perceived loss of economic status.

Despair sounds too much like white, male Americans chewed up by American capitalism….a big helping of unemployment and economic stress topped off by a bit of racism and gender anxiety.

So what about suicide in rural Washington? Rural Washington has the objective conditions for despair.* We have low educational attainment, high unemployment, low economic earnings, and poor physical health. These objective conditions only go so far. It is the perception that you are not doing well when others, and other groups, are doing better. It is the perception that for the first time you cannot imagine your children doing better than you or certainly their grandparents. It is the perception that there is no way out and that others are winning while you are losing.

On Thursday, February 15, we talked about suicide in rural Washington with Cassidy Brewin, the suicide prevention specialist with Community Health in Walla Walla. She will give us numbers, ideas behind the numbers, and ways to help. The discussion is here.

Spoiler alert – MAGA knows all about despair. Maybe Cassidy will find in the numbers that rural Washington enjoys community “social capital” that muffles the translation of poverty into despair. Stay tuned.

*Go to this website for an interactive map of social conditions in Washington by census zone.

Don Schwerin is the Chair of the Ag and Rural Caucus of the Washington State Democrats. He is a former State Committee Person for the Walla Walla County Democrats.