Health & Fitness
A Silent Sorrow: Suicides In Rural Colorado
A 12-year-old's death launched a new prevention strategy in Eagle County.
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series examining suicide in rural Colorado.
EDWARDS, CO — By Shannon Mullane for The Colorado Independent. Walking through the halls of Battle Mountain High School in this small town 14 miles west of Vail, Saphira Klearman stopped and pointed to a flyer on the wall.
“That’s what we’re doing,” she said.
The flyer promoted Project We Care Colorado, which 15-year-old Klearman and several of her classmates launched in August. The program aims to provide education and peer support for students struggling with suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues. Klearman’s typical day doesn’t include a lot of sleep — she squeezed in an interview with a reporter one day this month between her 12-course schedule and a suicide prevention event in the evening.
“This is my passion; this is what makes me happy,” she said.
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Klearman knows severe depression first-hand. Last year she was sexually assaulted, and the trauma festered. She started cutting herself, and shortly after Christmas, she made a plan to kill herself.
“I was really close to doing it, and I think I freaked myself out too much,” she said. Occasionally, she pulls her sweatshirt sleeves over her hands, covering the multitude of bracelets around her wrist. Bracelets that cover scars.
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Saphira Klearman, a student in Eagle County, talks about her suicide prevention initiatives. (Photo by Shannon Mullane)But then last spring, after Klearman started interviewing her peers as part of a mental health survey by Eagle County Department of Public Health, her mindset shifted. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by her struggle, she felt driven to help others.
In addition to Project We Care Colorado in her hometown, Klearman is working for change at the state level. She’s part of a wave of Eagle County leaders taking the suicide prevention fight into their own hands, setting an example for the rest of Colorado.
The mountain county, with a year-round population of under 55,000 and an economy based on tourism and service industries, lost five people to suicide in 2016; in 2017, it lost 13. So far in 2018, 17 people have committed suicide, according to the Eagle County Department of Public Health — including 12-year-old, Olivia Ortega, who died in February.
READ MORE in The Colorado Independent