Every Friday, Karl Rosston reviews Montana death certificates — more than 1,100 over the past five years — to better understand who dies by suicide and prevent others from taking their own lives.
Victims tend to be white, middle-aged men with guns. They are of a generation that believes the strong shoulder their responsibilities and keep problems to themselves. Suppressed depression becomes a burden too heavy to bear.
“In Montana, there’s a cowboy mentality,” says Rosston, the state’s suicide prevention coordinator, a position created in 2007 to lead statewide prevention initiatives. “Depression is considered a weakness. The stigma is huge.”
https://www.bcbsmt.com/newsroom/category/community-health/breaking-suicide-grip-montana
Production: Ben Hershey
Post Production: Ben Hershey