The topic is suicide is a sensitive and often not-talked-about subject but the Ceres City Council last week declared September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in an effort to prevent tragedies in the future.

Accepting the proclamation was Ceres resident Barbara Pearce Chiesa who shared her family’s sorrow from her mother and brother taking their own lives.

“That’s why I’m volunteering,” said Chiesa.

Approximately 49,000 Americans kill themselves each year, plunging friends and family into grief. In Stanislaus County during 2025 53 persons committed suicide.

“That’s 53 too many,” said Chiesa. “In the first six months of this year we’ve had 1,600 emergency room visits throughout the county of Stanislaus related to suicide risk.”

The biggest age group of the 1,600 visits was children aged 15 to 17 followed by the 25- to 34-year-old category.

“Clearly lots of work continues to be done,” said Chiesa, who moved with her family to Ceres when she was 11.

In 2023 64 cases of suicide occurred in Stanislaus County.

She publicized the upcoming 16th 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. 31 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.

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 4,022 documented cases of suicide in 2025, making it the 14th leading cause of death in the state.

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 offers 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.