Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions about suicide and could be upsetting for some readers.
JACKSON, Miss.—LaBethani May started her career as a schoolteacher, but after noticing how many students needed mental health support, she decided to change paths. “Many of them were receiving services and some were not great. I just felt inadequate to help them,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 16.
She went back to school, obtained a master’s degree in counseling and began working as an evidence-based, mental health first-aid provider.
She stepped into a new role as the Mississippi Department of Mental Health’s director of suicide prevention in April of this year. As she stood on stage for the agency’s annual suicide prevention symposium in Jackson on Sept. 16, May told attendees that less than two weeks after she started the job, she learned that one of her former students had taken his own life.
“Even though it’s so common, it’s still the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about,” LaBethani May told the Mississippi Free Press following the event.
‘Shatter The Silence’
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, in 2023, suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34, and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 44.
Every year, in an effort to normalize conversations around mental health and suicide prevention, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health hosts a suicide prevention symposium.
This year’s theme urged attendees to “Shatter the Silence.” In that vein, attendees—mental health providers, educators, military veterans and first responders—shared stories about both the loved ones they lost to suicide as well as instances where they attempted to take their own lives.
In recent years, MSDMH held the conference virtually, but this year, May suggested that it host the sessions in-person, giving participants the opportunity to meet others who could relate to their personal experiences with suicide in an open and transparent way.
That decision may have resulted in a drop in attendance numbers, but allowed for more intimate conversations between attendees rather than making the conversation about statistics and data, she told the Mississippi Free Press.
“I believe that the people that needed to be here today were here,” she said.
Ashley Mangum, a 25-year-old volunteer with Open Up Mississippi, recalled attempting to take her own life as an 18-year-old college student. Mangum broke down in tears when recalling that at the time, she didn’t have the language to express what she was experiencing or a community that could relate to her challenges.
Open Up Mississippi is a statewide, youth-led advisory council advocating for teens and young adults to have more candid conversations about their mental health struggles. More than 50% of students with a mental health condition aged 14 and older who are in special education programs drop out of school—the highest dropout rate of any disability group, Open Up Mississippi reports.
“I wish I knew about 988 sooner,” Mangum told attendees, referring to the national suicide and crisis hotline. “At that age, I didn’t know anything about mental health.” Originally listed as 1-800-273-8255, those in need can now text or call the three-digit shorthand, 988, to reach a mental health counselor who will connect them to resources.
Risk Factors for Suicidal Ideation
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a 2024 article that suicide is “rarely caused by one single event” but a range of factors—at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels—can increase suicide risk.
Bullying, lack of connectedness, feeling like a burden, poverty and a family history of mental illness are some of the risk factors that increase a person’s risk for suicidal ideation or thoughts of ending their own life, said Rachel-Clair Franklin, a licensed professional counselor. She serves as a suicide prevention trainer with Mississippi State University’s Alliance Project.
She shared that her cousin, Daniel Powell, took his own life in 2019 after losing his job and struggling to find work again.
It is important to acknowledge how each person’s lived experiences might make them more susceptible to mental illness and self-harm, she said. Franklin encouraged people to be kinder to one another, lead with empathy and be “uncommonly attentive” to those they think may be struggling.
“I think what we have missed is being truthful about how difficult it is to live sometimes,” she said.
‘Invisible Wounds’
The risk factors are higher for those returning to civilian life from the military, U.S. Army veteran Danny Blanton, who returned from his final deployment in 2012, told attendees.
Veteran suicide rates decreased from 2019 to 2020, with a 4.8% decrease in the age and sex-adjusted suicide rate for veterans compared to a 3.6% decrease for U.S. non-veterans; however, suicide rates among veterans continue to exceed those of non-veterans, data reported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs shows.
Blanton referred to “invisible wounds” like PTSD and depression that “don’t show up on an MRI.” Although he acknowledged that mental health resources for military veterans and first responders have increased tremendously since he returned from his final deployment, he believes there is much more work to be done to eradicate the stigma of seeking mental health support.
“You can lay all the resources out there but as long as the stigma is there, the resistance (to getting help) is going to be there,” he told attendees. “We need strong VA programs, community-based programs and resources for families but none of that works if we as a society won’t prioritize these supports.”
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. If you or someone you know is in crisis, facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, or struggling with drug or alcohol use, you can call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline for support at 988.