Staff photo / Ed Runyan Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene is seen speaking at Thursday night’s community conversation at the Campus of Care on East County Line Road in Mineral Ridge. At left is Brenda Heidinger, associate director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

MINERAL RIDGE — LeeAnne Cornyn, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said she and her team from Columbus came to the Campus of Care on Countyline Road for a townhall-style conversation about suicide because of increasing suicide numbers in Mahoning County.

But also, because Duane Piccirilli, head of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board and other officials have said, “Enough is enough. We know the trends. We know the numbers and they are staggering.”

Mahoning County had 41 suicide deaths in 2021, 44 in 2022 and 53 in 2023. This year is on pace to reach another record number.

Ohio lost almost 1,800 people to suicide in 2022, “which is more than almost any single time in Ohio history,” she said.

But some positives also have happened. “We launched ‘Beat the Stigma,’ a statewide campaign to address [mental health and addiction] stigma. We know stigma kills,” she said. “And 91% of Ohioans saw this campaign.”

And two years ago, the state launched the suicide prevention phone number 988, which “has received nearly 340,000 calls, texts and chats, and that is with only 36% of Ohioans knowing it exists. Very staggering. We know there is immense need,” she said.

“988 is completely free, it’s totally confidential, it’s 24 / 7 and its there for whatever anyone thinks is a crisis in their own life, whether it is a financial issue, whether it is a relationship issue, whether you are just overwhelmed with life at home or at work. It’s an opportunity to call a trained professional and be connected to someone who is compassionate and caring on the other end of the line,” she said.

The session then involved two focus groups who talked on several topics, starting with Brenda Heidinger, associate director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, Sheriff Jerry Greene, Mahoning County Commissioner Carole Rimedio Righetti, and Ashley Mariano, prevention coordinator, Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio.

Mariano said the new Mental Health America report stated that 13% of adolescents nationally “had experienced in the last year suicidal thoughts.” That includes ages 12 to 17.

One in five young people “have had a depressive episode last year. Of those people, over half of them have not received treatment or help. That is over three million young people.”

In Ohio, one in three adolescents from grades 9 through 12 “have anxiety, one in three are feeling sad and hopeless.”

Greene said law enforcement officers are seeing suicide “on the street.” But the jail also has 500 people in it. “About 50% of those individuals have mental health problems,” he said. He said his department sends many of his officers to get crisis intervention training.

“It’s really helped us in dealing with people out in public. It certainly helps with dealing with people in the jail. It teaches you how to talk to individuals, obviously respectfully. But it also teaches you how to look for danger cues, high-risk behaviors,” he said.

Deputies are tasked with the “very sad” task of going to someone’s home and taking them into custody at the direction of the Mahoning County Probate Court, usually to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital to get mental health care because they are either a threat to hurt themselves or others.

Greene, who is on local television commercials aimed at reducing the stigma of mental health issues, said it’s a stigma among law enforcement officers. They live, on average, about 10 years less than the average.

“It’s because of the stress of the job,” he said. He said people look at law enforcement officers as different, “but we go home to our families. But there is an anxiety to admit you have a problem.” He said the stresses in law enforcement work are “incredible.”

There are a lot of support groups, however, including within the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office. “The support groups are law enforcement officers who understand what we go through.”

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