Stamford Advocate  ‘We all have to become providers’ to reduce Connecticut suicide rate

By John Breunig, Editorial Page Editor, May 31, 2026

Lives are sometimes lost in silence.

Even AI will never create a reliable fever chart to track how many suicides are prevented. But there seems to be good news on that front. The 988-suicide prevention hotline that was introduced in 2022 appears to be working, according to data from the American Medical Association. Nationally, the rate of suicides among American youth was 11% lower than projections.

No, these numbers aren’t perfect. And they are skewed by coming in the aftermath of the pandemic. But let’s embrace that the sharpest decreases were recorded in states that answered more 988 calls.

Yes, there was a hotline before it was reduced to three digits. But can you remember any 10 digits in 2026? That’s precisely the point.

Connecticut is among the 10 states with the highest increases in calls to 988 in the AMA’s look at the hotline’s first 30 months. That means more people are reaching out for help. In Connecticut, that translated to more than 55,000 calls in Fiscal Year 2025. Nationally, calls to 988 were double the amount of those received at the old number.

Even suicide is not a politics-free zone. Last year the Trump administration canceled the LGBTQ+ youth option on the 988 hotline. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently conceded that it would be revived.

Stamford has been particularly ambitious in trying to address mental health issues among youth. The Stamford Youth Mental Health Alliance is a network of more than 35 organizations and providers that collaborate rather than work in the silos that vex initiatives in too many communities. As a result, 988 signs have been posted throughout Stamford parks, strip malls and other locations that draw young people.

That has required collaboration with the City of Stamford Department of Health and Human Services and the Stamford Prevention Council, which help host and support suicide prevention training sessions branded as “Question, Persuade, Refer” (sessions are slated for noon June 17 and 10:30 a.m. June 24 at Stamford’s Ferguson Library).

When I called Stamford Health Director Jody Bishop-Pullan to talk about the issue, I tapped in the wrong number and got the Phys Ed department at a Stamford school instead.

“We all dial numbers quickly. You make a mistake and then tend to give up,” Bishop-Pullan says.

It’s not her intended meaning, but I type the two words in capital letters: “GIVE UP.” For the human life facing distress, digits should never be an obstacle to finding help.

Preventing suicides is an ideal topic to mark May as National Mental Health Awareness Month. But mental health doesn’t follow calendars. Bishop-Pullan summons a stat she knows from experience: “Behavioral health is the first highest health need in the city.”

Bishop-Pullan and I chat for nearly an hour. I admire that when she doesn’t know the answer to a question she doesn’t fudge one. When our conversation about suicide prevention is over, nothing lingers more than her observation that “we all have to become providers.”

She’s referring to the wait list throughout Connecticut for mental health providers of all types. The state must aspire to do better. The 988 data is encouraging, but May began with a child dying by suicide an hour after meeting with a Department of Children and Families worker. No community is immune. Wilton police attributed two teen deaths to suicide this year.

The recent creation of the Connecticut Office of the Behavioral Health Advocate is a small step, but at least it’s not another step backward. My suggestion would be to probe revolving door emergency departments.

Towns can also do more to erase stigmas around mental health and suicide. It’s a credit to Stamford that the “Question, Persuade, Refer” training is offered for free to any group that welcomes it.

In the absence of appropriate training, Bishop-Pullan says people who engage with at-risk youth “might see something but they don’t know what to do with it. They fear saying the wrong thing. Or there’s the myth that ‘if I say the wrong thing it will give them an idea.’

“It’s more important to let people know they have a safe place to talk.”

Stamford is making progress on other fronts that could also serve as models. The Stamford Police Department has an innovative behavioral health unit, and the alliance welcomes more providers to join the mission. An even better alliance would bust down walls between towns.

Bishop-Pullan takes a detour in our conversation to consider the long view. Before she served on the Norwalk Board of Education, from 2000-2011, she was a PTO member. She doesn’t recall much conversation about suicide prevention when she first became engaged in youth issues. Back then, the focus was on curtailing tobacco and drug use. I repeat my favorite maxim that the decline in smokers is evidence that social change is possible.

She’s now a grandmother, an eyewitness to the transition from what she refers to as “play-based childhood to online childhood.” Her grandchildren won’t have memories of childhoods without the screens that come packaged with associated anxieties.

I share observations from my parallel years in newsrooms. News agencies have always struggled with how to report self-inflicted deaths. When I was city editor, we reported one youth’s death because it occurred in a public place. His mother never forgave me, and called whenever she learned of other deaths by suicide to question why they were not reported in the newspaper. I lacked the words that could serve as any sort of balm, despite losing more than one colleague to suicide during my career.

The hotline numbers and unified community efforts aren’t the only things that have changed. Grassroots efforts are on the rise. The Shoulder Check charity inspired by the 2022 death of Darien’s Hayden Thorsen has expanded so much that its annual hockey showcase featuring NHL stars has moved from Stamford’s Terry Conners Rink to Sacred Heart University’s Martire Family Arena (it is to take place July 30).

Bishop-Pullan reminds me of ways language around the issue has pivoted: “We’ve moved from ‘commit suicide’ to ‘die by suicide.’ ” Euphemisms such as “untimely death” remain common as well.

My trade is words, but the nuances of these phrases aren’t what really matter.

What matters is that people are finally talking about suicide. Lives are lost in silence. Sometimes, they can be saved by a conversation. A conversation that’s just three digits away.

To reach 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, people can call or text 988 or chat at www.988lifeline.org.