2018 is Franklin County's third consecutive year with an above-average number of suicides

For the third year in a row, at least 20 people have died by suicide in 2018 in Franklin County - and the year's not over. 

Twenty people killed themselves this year as of Wednesday, said county coroner Jeff Conner.

Six of them died since the start of October, according to data in the Mental Health Association of Franklin and Fulton Counties' third-quarter suicide report. Fourteen died in the first nine months of the year. 

The "crude suicide rate," using the county's population as of 2017, for the year through Sept. 30 was 9.1 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, according to the MHAFFC report. 

This year's victims are among 76 local people who committed suicide in the past four years, according to recent data and previous information Sheri Morgan of the MHAFFC provided Public Opinion. There were 20 suicides in 2017, down slightly from 21 in 2016. That year experienced a 40-percent increase from 2015, when 15 people committed suicide. But that was a significant drop from the previous year, when 23 people died by suicide. 

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Morgan said suicide is not an "epidemic" in Franklin County. Citing Pennsylvania Department of Health records and Centers of Disease Control statistics, she said there have been about 374 deaths by suicide in the county since 1995, as of June 30. With the most recent numbers added, that averages out to just under 17 a year - at least three fewer than the actual figure. Between 2011-17, there was an average of 18.5 suicides a year, Morgan said. 

Nationally, suicide is often called a public health emergency, USA TODAY recently reported. There has been a 33-percent increase in suicide since 1999. It's currently the 10th leading cause of death. 

While the suicide rate has gone up, other leading causes of death - such as cancer and heart disease - have gone down over the past 20 years. Accidents is the only cause of death to increase more than suicide, according to USA TODAY. 

Back in Franklin County, nearly 86 percent of suicides in the first nine months of this year were by men, according to the MHAFFC report. That is in line, although slightly above, with what has been reported since 2015, with 77.6 percent of suicide victims being men, Morgan said. 

Victims this year were in there mid-40s on average, and they ranged in age from 16 to 75. All but one was white. 

Gunshot was the most common way people committed suicide in 2018, according to the report. Hanging was also used at least three times. Other common methods in recent years have been asphyxiation and self-induced drug toxicity/poisoning, Morgan said. 

The rate of suicides could be much higher if not for intervention methods. According to data in the report, county 911 dispatchers received 478 calls so far this year for mental distress/suicide attempt. 

Having suicidal thoughts should be treated like any other medical condition, Dr. Jagdeep Kaur of Keystone Behavioral Health told Public Opinion earlier this year. People should be educated on how emotions are a normal part of life and learn how to cope with them and manage stress. 

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Some people debating whether to commit suicide choose not to seek help because they strongly believe it is the right thing to do, Kaur said. They don't share their thoughts because they don't want anyone to stop them. A key to stopping a suicide is to get the person at risk to share what they thinking, she said. 

Since joining Keystone Health in 2014, Kaur has lost several patients to suicide. In her own experience, there has been an increase over recent years, with more drug use, financial problems and depression being key risk factors. 

USA TODAY reported that society's modern way of living may not be helping. In addition to increasing drug and alcohol use, isolation, smartphone use and even climate change have been linked to suicide risk. 

Despite increasing around the country, suicide is not afforded as much funding or research as other leading causes of death, USA TODAY reported. The National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, spent five times more money on studying sleep and 10 times more on studying breast cancer last year than it did on suicide, despite suicide causing more deaths than either of those issues. 

Ashley Books contributed to this report.