There are resources for those considering suicide:
988 is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. LGBTQ+ youth can also call the Trevor Project lifeline 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386 or call Rainbow Youth Project at 317-643-4888.
Oklahoma’s suicide rate is over 60% higher than the national average and ranks in the top 10 states for suicide and suicidality, a report found.
The Healthy Minds Policy Initiative found that nearly 8,000 Oklahomans died by suicide between 2013 and 2022, which equates to “two lives lost per day over a decade.” Most were gun-related deaths. Oklahoma’s rate of 21 suicide deaths per 100,000 people is well over the national rate of 14 for every 100,000, according to the report.
Zack Stoycoff, executive director of the nonpartisan group of policy and mental health experts, said there are “common sense solutions” like reducing access to lethal options and increasing mental health screenings.
“I think what we could learn from this is what circumstances are contributing to suicide and how complex that issue is,” he said. “… When we talk about the epidemic of suicide, we’re talking about the suffering and the circumstances that lead to suicidality and not just the deaths themselves.”
Stoycoff said 10,000 people a year are hospitalized because of suicidality, which is suicidal ideation or intent. Hospitalizations for suicide-related visits cost Oklahoma $139 million in 2022, according to the report.
Areas of Oklahoma with poor broadband access correlated with higher rates of suicidality, the report found. Many of these counties were in southeast Oklahoma. Pushmataha County had the highest suicide death rate.
Stoycoff said this relates to a lack of access to services and communities, but that Oklahoma is doing “pretty well” expanding broadband access.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2024 that suicide rates were 44% lower in counties where most homes have broadband internet access.
“Suicide does affect everybody, but in Oklahoma, suicide is a rural issue,” Stoycoff said. “I mean, we’re seeing that the largest suicide rates are in rural counties, and we have to look at how to expand our reach of services in rural counties.”
The report from Healthy Minds, released in conjunction with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, also detailed trends in suicide rates by age, gender, race, contributing social and environmental factors, and history of mental health problems and treatment.
Around 43% of people who died by suicide in Oklahoma between 2013 to 2022 had a known problem with mental health and a third were perceived, by themselves or others, to be depressed. Just over a quarter were in treatment for a mental health or substance use problem at the time of their death.
Universal screening for mental health issues and suicidality could be a way to catch these issues early, Stoycoff said.
“When you go to a health care provider or primary care physician, they’re going to check your vital signs. You can do blood pressure and weight, and we’re going to use those as measures of how well you are,” he said. “What we need to treat mental health as a vital sign. It needs to be part of how we practice medicine, because primary care is care for the entire body and the brain is part of the body.”
The report found that over 7% of Oklahomans between 15 and 24 years old made plans to attempt suicide, and 4.5% of children, ages 12 to 17, attempted suicide in 2021 and 2022.
The rate of deaths by suicide for Native American Oklahomans surpassed white Oklahomans for the first time in 2020, the report stated.
“The Legislature has generally been very supportive in passing positive legislation in recent years,” he said. “I think we can also appreciate the effort of mental health nonprofit providers who have expanded access to services. Many more people are being treated for mental health needs now than we’re being treated even a decade ago. That doesn’t mean that the need has gone down, it means the providers are trying to step up to meet the rising demand.”
