Is pandemic causing more suicides?

Whether or not the pandemic has led to more suicides is a national concern — and a local one as well. 

During a Health Board meeting last fall, when a cap on event attendance was being discussed, Jefferson County Commissioner Leonard Wortman said there were “way more suicides this year,” and implied that it was a result of the fallout from COVID-19, such as business restrictions. And he is not the only one locally who has expressed this concern, as did a recent letter to the editor in The Boulder Monitor. The trend is also of national interest. 

While national data as a whole is not yet available for 2020, Jefferson County did see an increase in suicides last year compared to 2019, although the numbers are relatively small, making drawing any conclusion about statistical significance difficult.