The word suicide is one we always dance around. We don't say it aloud, don't even list it in obituaries.

It's a secret loaded down with shame, and those of us left behind carry both on our shoulders.

As we near the year mark of the pandemic determining our every move, we're seeing the mental health effects are ravaging our communities.

Job losses. Human losses. Emotional losses.

They're adding up. They're costing us even more.

Pre-pandemic, the CDC was reporting suicide was taking the lives of more and more people ages 10 to 24 every year. In the year 2000, the rate of suicide per 100,000 people in that age group was 7.2. By 2018, it was 10.7.

The numbers for 2020 aren't in yet, and experts expect they'll be undercounted as so much has been in the last year. People are dying. Kids are dying.

How does Sullivan County rank? Not well. In 2010, the state took an overall look at the rates of suicide by county. The state average was 7.5 percent per 100,000 people (across all ages). Here in Sullivan County, our rate was nearly double that: 13.9. Again, the numbers from this past year are not in, but there's no question that our kids are at risk; our community is at risk.

Kids have had their whole worlds turned topsy-turvy, and their parents are struggling too. Our mental health resources were already limited with parents telling the Democrat that they were hearing as much as a two-year wait to get in to see some local therapists. Add in insurance limitations and now a pandemic that has both increased the number of people seeking mental health services — thereby putting an even bigger burden on the system — and the inability for people to sit face-to-face with providers, and we're approaching a different sort of pandemic.

We are losing people.

And we have to talk about it.

Suicide is never the answer, but so long as it's hidden away in the shadows, it will never be eradicated. Our kids, our communities, deserve better.

If you're struggling, there is help out there. You can start by calling the National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-8255. You can also call Sullivan County Department of Community Services at 292-8770 to see if you or a loved one qualifies for mental health services from the county or for suggestions on where to find help.

There is no shame in asking for help.