The Ceres City Council last week declared September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and heard from a Ceres woman who shared her family’s sorrow from a member who took his life.

Councilman James Casey read the proclamation and noted that two employees over the years and two family members committed suicide.

In accepting the proclamation, Barbara Pearce Chiesa noted that January through June, there were 31 confirmed deaths by suicide in Stanislaus County. In 2023, 64 cases of suicide occurred in Stanislaus County.

“The average in Stanislaus County is one a week,” said Chiesa, who moved with her family to Ceres when she was 11.

“Every life lost to suicide effects about 135 people at the minimum, you know, their families, and the reason I’m involved is because Ceres is my hometown, but we lost my brother to suicide in 2011,” she said. “In order to find a way to help other families, help people who are still struggling and hopefully avoid this happening at any other family, we’ve gotten involved.”

She publicized the upcoming 15th annual “Out of the Darkness Community Walk” hosted by the local chapter of the American Federation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The fundraiser walk is set for Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Modesto Junior College West Campus. More about the walk is found online at afspwalks.donordrive.com/Modesto.

The local walk was started by four mothers who lost their sons to suicide.

AFSP was set up by local grieving parents and spread to all 50 states. It raises funds to engage in research and educates others about the problem of suicide. The organization also makes available guest speakers to give a free 45-minute presentation titled, “Talk Saves Lives,” what Chiesa called Suicide Prevention 101. Volunteers and members also offer support to persons who have lost loved ones to suicide.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2023, 49,316 Americans committed suicide and 1.5 million attempted suicide.

While men make up about 50 percent of the American population, they accounted for nearly 80 percent of suicide cases. The highest suicide rate among men were of those 75 years of age and older. Of women, the highest rate was aged 45 to 64.

California experienced 4,144 documented cases of suicide in 2023, making it the 14th leading cause of death in the state. Suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10-34, and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 44.

Chiesa said that five times as many people in the country died by suicide in 2019 than in alcohol-related motor vehicles accidents.

 “Suicide is similar to other things – it’s pretty grossly unreported actually so these numbers are pretty low because in many cases it’s difficult to determine from the cause of death whether intentional or accidental and most families understandably want to believe it was accidental rather than intentional,” said Chiesa.

She and her two siblings lost their mother to suicide in 1988.

“In 1988 we didn’t really talk about suicide and we didn’t really know anybody else that this had happened to,” said Chiesa. “It was and will always be, I think, the saddest day of all of our lives. And there really wasn’t much in terms of resources. The coroner encouraged us to put her death notice in another county – because legally you had to list it – but in order to not bring shame to our family so we did. We had a very private small service and basically grieved in silence.”

In 2011, her 48-year-old brother killed himself and she called him “a wonderful person just like my mom. The difference between 1988 and 2011 … was that there were resources.”

She offered the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number at 1 (800) 273-TALK (8255) or call 988 for suicide and crisis lifeline.

Popular with younger people is the text line at 988 to reach trained counselors.