ABC News 7 San Francisco reports that depression brought on by quarantine have led to a massive spike in suicides. Dr. Mike de Boisblanc at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek California says; "We've never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time. I mean we've seen a year's worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks."
Kacey Hansen who has worked at the same hospital for 33 years says she has never seen anything even close to this. Not only are the attempts many times more than usual, the hospitals ability to save them has dropped. "Before quarantine we would see a lot of suicide attempts that were really cries for help. But it's changed now. These people intend to die.It's upsetting."
Perhaps most upsetting is the demographics. Unlike COVID 19 which kills the majority of it's victims at what would traditionally be considered late in life (age 70 and older), these suicides are happening to people as they move into what most consider the prime of life (aged 20-40).
The head of the trauma center says "here at John Muir, we now have more people dying of suicide than COVID-19. Originally, this (the shelter-in-place order) was put in place to flatten the curve and to make sure hospitals have the resources to take care of COVID patients.We have the current resources to do that and our other community health is suffering.I hope government officials will look at the data and recognize we need to reopen now".
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255